The GoYin Store: Buy GoYin Wholesale

Update: Goyin Forum

Since I was young, I knew I was goyin to be someone important and rich. That’s why I’m goyin to join this MLM. If I want a rich life, I am going (going?) to have to start thinking on my toes. That’s why Goyin will be my life’s focus for the next couple hours.

Update: Goyin Related Articles

FM transmitters have come a long way since my first one in 2003: the iTrip. The iTrip’s design required your iPod to have certain data ports lined up to its data receiver prong. So, you had to have an iPod too. You also had to import “songs” to your iPod which were actually different sound frequencies that told the iTrip which radio station you were on. Bloody hassle, it was.

I recently had used the VRFM9 from a company that I have mentioned here before: VR3. This handy FM Transmitter is powered by your car, not your iPod, saving battery power. It accepts SD cards and USB flash drives. So if you put mp3 files on these storage options, this FM transmitter plays those files like a jukebox.

I don’t really use these features, so the main feature I am concerned with is the strength of the FM transmitter. Apparently there are FCC regulations to keep FM transmitters from being too strong (you can imagine the implications). The transmitter on this unit was average. Maybe on par or less than that of the iTrip.

I just recently picked up the iQfm. It has all of the same features as the VRFM9 but curiously, this little part has a stronger transmitter than any that I’ve heard. Here in Provo, UT I use 88.5 FM, and the signal is clear (except in rare occasions where I pass close to strong looking power lines).

There are some complaints that the sound is still not CD quality. Here is what I do to ensure pretty damn near CD quality sound. To get the most out of both the bass and treble ends of the spectrum, I turn my car’s treble EQ to +3 (on a scale from -6 to +6) and leave the bass at 0. I also turn my iPod’s volume up to about 15/16 the maximum loudness. The strength of your iPod’s (or whatever mp3 player’s) volume affects the signal strength of the transmitter.

FM Transmitters are still a necessary evil because many of us that don’t want to mar the beauty of a factory stereo setup to put a receiver in with Aux-in (damn you 2003 honda accord factory stereo team members… damn you to hell). But, as far as that goes, I’m convinced that this little guy is as good as it gets without messy/costly installs.

Who says you can’t ski and watch the thrilling cult classic “Better Off Dead” at the same time. This cocaine snorting LCD display tray comes complete with a VGA port and 2 grams of high-society nose candy.

Update: Peter, Bjorn and John at the Gallivan Center.

I saw the Fiery Furnaces and Yo La Tengo at the Gallivan Center (see map– 249 S. Main in Salt Lake City), but this post is more about the venue than the show, but the show was really great. This was my first time at the Gallivan Center, so here are some things that are good to know.

1. Address- Gallivan Center - 249 S. Main Street. The underground parking enterance is on 200 S. halfway between Main and State.

2. Money- Expenses you’ll be obliged to: The concert is free, but parking will probably run you $5 for the whole night if you want to park in the close underground parking. Besides that, you won’t be obliged to pay anything else.

There are plenty of booths for food. “The Pie” pizzaria is included. 3.50 a slice. Other booths include stone/silver jewelry and the like.

If you like beer or wine, it is $5 a glass. The glasses of beer looked to be about 12 oz. It looked like Uinta Brewing company was the available micro brew (no other beers were present). I think I spotted lagers, amber ales, and stouts.

3. Allowed Foreign Items- You are allowed to bring in coolers, although outside alcohol is not allowed. There are some event staffers spot checking coolers and purses, but it wouldn’t be hard to conceal alcohol in a container. A point that might be interesting to some is that the event staffers weren’t patting down anyone. There are about a thousand wide open entrances to the outdoor venue.

Although there is technically no smoking allowed, it is impossible to police. Once you enter the general area there are no authority figures. I actually didn’t see any real cops the whole night.

I also suggest you bring blankets and/or lawn chairs. Once you reserve a place on the grass, you will be glad you did.

No pets allowed.

4. If you are worried that you are too: fat /skinny /ugly /pretty /old /young /drunk /high /black /white /family oriented for a free summer concert at the Gallivan Center, don’t worry, you won’t be alone. It is refreshing to see senior citizens in lawn chairs enjoying the absurd prog rock amelodic stylings of the Fiery Furnaces along-side the teenies smoking their little pinners.

So, in other words, if you want to take your family, there are plenty of big families with small children there. But if you are going to meet young singles, there’s that too.

Recently I had a frustrating experience with Sprint Customer Service. On my latest bill I had 266 text messages charged erroneously to me. I generally use between 5 and 10 a month, being as I have very few friends (see my link section).

Anyway, I called Sprint Customer Cervix (as it will heretofore be refered to as) and got a lady who had a slight ambiguous near eastern accent that I couldn’t pin point. I explained to her my problem, and she assured me that they had proof that I had made those text messages. I asked for the phone number they were sent to and was put on hold. After several times of being put on hold for 10 minutes at a time, she told me they were unable to track down those phone numbers but that they had proof that I made those. I asked what kind of proof they had, and they explained that they had the number of text messages I made but not the phone numbers. I repeated back what I incredulously heard, and she said that I had it right exactly.

Just in case they don’t have cell phones in India, I explained to her how text messages work. There has to be a sender and a receiver. If they couldn’t get a number of the receiver, then the text messages probably don’t exist. And since we were in agreement that they didn’t exist I asked for a refund. When she refused, I asked to speak to her team lead. His name was Vince and his employee number is 612106.

Vince 612106 and I had the exact same conversation over the next 20 minutes (15 of it was on hold) where they could not produce a shred of evidence that this actually happened, except the number of text messages. I asked if they were located outside of the US, and he said yes. I asked to be transfered to an American call center and he said that that was against their policy. All lies. So I just got his name and employee number (Vince 612106!) and hung up. I was told by a tech support rep that when you’re being stonewalled, just hang up, or they will put in your notes that you’ve been stonewalled in the past, which will make you more likely to be stonewalled in the future.

Gewis had a better idea. When I called Sprint Customer Cervix the next time, I said ‘cancel my account’ when the voice prompt asks what you want. I was transfered directly to an American call center, where a kind individual refunded my $40 within 5 minutes.

Peter, Bjorn, and John is performing with the Apostle of Hustle tonight at the Gallivan Center for free. Check out my Guide to the Gallivan Center Twilight Concert Series in Salt Lake City.

Take my 4 second quiz to find out if you would enjoy going to this show:

1. Do you like to be around other human beings?

2. a. Do the little hairs on your outer ear pass sound waves that eventually end up being processed successfully by your brain?

b. If the answer to part a. of question 2 is in the affirmative, do you enjoy this sensation?

c. If the answer to part a. of question 2 is in the negative, do you enjoy this sensation anyway?

3. Do you live in driving distance of Salt Lake City?

If the answers to these questions are all yeses, then you will really enjoy this show tonight. Bring a blanket and some sushi or something.

Update:

mmmm…gulp…

As you have probably recently noticed, The Yellow Subterfuge is sporting a PR 4 when just minutes ago it was a PR 3 (and thanks for paying so close attention).

My non-www version of the blog (ie yellowsubterfuge.com) was a 4 and the yes-www version of the blog (ie www.yellowsubterfuge.com) was a 3. There is a helpful redirect that SEO savvy people like to use called an HTTP redirect class 301. They like this redirect option because it is permanent and will pass on the precious google link juice to where you are redirecting to.

I picked up a simple, easy-to-use plugin that will send my yes-www traffic to my non-www site, pick up the PR 3 link juice from the yes-www version of the site, and have one official page for my blog. Not bad for 45 seconds of work.

Thanks for the easy to use plugin, Matt.

Ivan Mendes is the most fraudiest fraudster SewellDirect.com has ever seen. So much so, that Gewis, our expert fraud detector, made a certificate for him. Gewis even emailed it to him. It will probably cause him to use a different name.

The most common type of internet fraud of course is stolen credit card numbers. Fraudsters use unsuspecting internet retailers to launder money by purchasing goods with stolen credit cards and then liquidating them. Recently Preston took a whole trip out to Florida because the FBI tracked down a huge fraud ring with stolen merchandise that reached the ceiling of a house. They had purchased video cards from us fraudulently, over a thousand dollars worth I think.

There are some obvious red flags that Gewis looks for when orders come in and we are getting better and better at it. Usually the merchandise sold has mass appeal, and often times the fraudster wants the goods shipped somewhere internationally. When Gewis senses fraud with his spidey senses, he often calls the customer to make sure they are legit, and also performs queries with this really awesome search tool called "Google" to validate the identities of the purchasers. That’s at Google.com.

So anyway, watch out for Ivan Mendes. He’s so going to rot in hell.

If you’re an average homeboy like me, you probably BBQ a lot and probably use a charcoal chimney to get your coals ready. But for all of you from the streets, or those of you signing million dollar checks (in other words, you non-average homeboys), I will show you how to evenly light all of your coals perfectly, without match starter coals, and without lighter fluid.

This memorial day caught me alone with a nice thick 16 oz.+ ribeye. It was still a bit lonely.

Charcoal chimneys are very handy and save you money. They allow you to buy the cheapest charcoal and you’ll never have to spend money on ‘girl scout water’ (which Bob my roomate calls it).

1. Simply stuff a couple leaves of newspaper in the bottom compartment of the chimney.

2. Fill the top compartment (the largest one) with charcoal.

3. Light the newspaper through the air holes.

4. Wait about 20 minutes.

You will see smoke rising from the chimney for about 10 minutes before you actually start seeing any red charcoals. This is normal. It is amazing that this even works, I still don’t understand it.

This is what you will begin to see when the coals are well on their way. You’ll know that the coals are ready when the coals on the very top have 3-5 inch flames coming off them.

5. Once the coals are ready, use a glove and dump the coals evenly and replace the grill.

You will see that every individual coal will be perfectly and individually on fire. Perfectly and evenly lit coals means perfectly and evenly cooked meat. The coals will also be hotter initially than you can get them with lighter fluid, which is good news for all of you who eat your steaks rare.

So, living in Utah, most people I know are conservative by default without really knowing much about what that means. I think people around here for the most part understand the difference between social issues, like that its more conservative to be against gay marriage.

However, in my experience in Utah people usually either disagree or are surprised that economic conservatism means minimal government participation, or a “smaller federal government,” even though its a commonly understood principle. In other words, the further right you go on the scale, the less you believe the government should impose rules and regulations, and the more you believe that the government should tax less and eliminate more social programs, allowing private parties to provide these services. Theoretically, anarchy (or pure capitalism amongst private parties without any government involvement) is the most “right” one can go.

These days solutions to issues can fall on both the left or right side of the spectrum. Its possible to be economically conservative but still be interested in solutions to improve the environment for instance. I think we will see that market driven solutions by privateers will make a much more efficient change to the environment than slow capital hill tax fund eating bureaucrats.

As an example, Utah companies are some of the country’s leaders in developing renewable energy sources like bio-diesel. A norweigan company called Havgul is making plans to build the world’s largest wind farm. In my opinion the best thing government can do to help in these situations is to regulate as little as possible.

Anyway, there is an interesting and really short test you can take online that tells you how conservative or liberal you are in all of the different aspects government plays in our lives. Here is my breakdown. You can click on the link at the bottom to take the test yourself.

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal Social Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Its been a little time since I’ve done any updates on the Sewellebrity wall. Since my last update, we’ve received three new signed glamour shots: Peter Gallagher, Slim Goodbody, and Denny Blaze.

Peter Gallagher is a bit of a strange one, especially since he’s actually in some movies I like, like American Beauty. Slim Goodbody is another strange one since he’s not really that into himself. Well, I guess wearing spandex with your insides printed on the outside, I guess that’s one way to be really into yourself.

Denny Blaze is a great fit, however. Check out one of his demo videos from back in the dizzay called “Average Homeboy”:

This signed pic of Denny Blaze actually cost $3, the most expensive glamour shot so far. He didn’t even sign it which is strange. Maybe average homeboys don’t sign pictures either. Yo D, thanks for keeping it real.

I was going to talk about this in yesterday’s post about Costco gas economics, but I held back just because I knew some people would object, but I’ve done a little research, so to Sam’s comment, this is just my humble opinion.

A couple weeks back I was enjoying Click and Clack’s weekly Saturday Morning show ‘Car Talk’ (which you can find on your local public radio probably) and they addressed the question on whether or not premium gas is really essential for cars that supposedly require it.

Octane ratings in gasoline measure its ‘knock resistance.’ Knocking occurs when fuel in a combustion chamber ignites before it should.

Apparently according to Click and Clack, cars until about the early 90s required the correct octane gasoline, or suffer extreme knocking and vibrating under the hood. It wasn’t until the early 90s that car manufacturers installed ‘knock sensors’ to prevent this from happening if you are using the wrong octane.

The knock sensors basically slow the speed of the cylinders to match that of a regularly tuned car that doesn’t require the special octane ratio.

Philip Reed of Edmunds.com said that the only advantage now to higher octane gasoline for your luxury/sports cars is that you can make it to 60 mph in half a second less time.

Here are some more sources:

NPR’s Car Talk - Click and Clack on “Car Talk” diss Premium Gas.

USAToday - Experts say that these days there isn’t much difference at all between premium and regular, and even challenges you to go back and forth to test it.

Edmunds.com - Modern sensors have made engine knocking a thing of the past.

ConsumerEnergyCenter.com - Knock sensors have made high octane obsolete. Using premium to clean your engine is also a myth.

CBS2.com - A mechanic of 25 years says that high octane is much less important these days with sophisticated on-board computers and knock sensors.

straightdope.com - this article warns against using regular in a car that requires premium if you do not have knock sensors (if your car is more than 15 years old).

This is a view from the Costco gas pumps this morning at around 8:15. Notice how there is not one car in line.

This is just a follow-up of the previous post about the economics of getting gas at Costco. Go on a weekday morning. It is amazing how much time and money I can save by planning a time to get gas instead of getting gas when I happen to be driving around which is always during prime gas hours.

Another interesting thing about Costco gas is their supply chain. I’ve been trying to find something online that explains their supply chain and I found this CNN article, although it is about 8 years old. It explains the “hypermarket” strategy to discount gasoline. Costco and other big retailers or supermartkets these days have opened up gas pumps on their property and are able to offer gas at a discount by avoiding rent and other overhead costs, while staying aloof of contracts with big fuel distributors by buying from local suppliers.

It is interesting to see the disadvantage of this approach. This morning I saw this sign over the premium octane selector:

Because the model of “hypermarkets” restrict themselves to only buy from local distributors in order to avoid contracts and fees with national distributors, they also run the risk of shortages by buying from a smaller market. Evidence of this is their shortage today of Premium Octane.

This shortage doesn’t effect me personally, since I don’t drive a car that supposedly requires this.