1. Press down on the break pedal 5 times.
2. On the 5 time, hold down the break pedal and start the car.
3. Let the car run for 5 seconds, while still holding down the break pedal, and then turn it off.
4. Again while still holding down the break pedal, give the key a one quarter turn in the ignition.
5. Still holding down the break pedal, move the gear shift so that it is between Neutral and Drive.
6. Finally, with your foot holding down the break pedal, start the car. Hopefully, you can now shift your into whatever gear you need and drive it to the nearest VW service center to get it fixed.

VW Stuck in Park © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Yesterday, I went home for my lunch hour. When my time was up, I went down to the car to get back to work. The car unlocked and started up without any problems. What was a problem is the ASL light turned on and stayed on. Normally, this light turns off once you press down on the brake pedal. It’s there to prevent you from shifting into gear without having the brake pressed to avoid accidents. Except now, my foot was on the brake and I was still stuck in park. I fiddled around with it for a bit, but couldn’t get aything to happen¹. I rushed back inside, called by boss and worked the rest of the from home via the corporate VPN.

After work, I called the dealership but found out the service department closed an hour before I called. I talked to the salesman who sold us the car and he suggested calling the VW roadside assistance 800# to have them tow the car out. I called them up, waiting on hold for several minutes and then got to talk to *mumble, mumble #1*. He had me go out ot my car and try several things to get the car out of park. I was just nearing the end of his instructions when the battery in my phone died. *grumpf*

I tromped back up into the apartment and called back on a wired phone. Again I had to wait several minutes and then I got to talk to *mumble, mumble #2*. I explained what was wrong and what I’d done so far. He gave me the complete instructions and I wrote them down. Then I set down my phone and ran outside to try them. Success! I could now get my car out of park! Before I ran back inside to relate my success, I turned off the car and tried starting/shifting normally. No luck, that was still screwy. I went back inside, picked up the phone and… And nothing, all I got was dead air. *double grumf*

I called the roadside assistance a third time and once again had to wait several minutes for the privilege of talking to *unidentified pissy man*. This guy never gave me his name. I told him everything that I’d been through and the resuylts of their procedure for getting the car out of park. I asked if I was supposed to be ok now, or if I still needed to get it to the dealership? He grumpily answered that “of course I needed to get it to the dealership.” All this around, though not entirely their fault, was not exactly making my evening any better.

Today, I called the dealership and their receptionist was waaaaaaay to gorram happy for 7:45 AM. Fortunately, she quickly transfered me to their service department. And they answered the phone with a “Good Afternoon”. While time is relative and there was a period in my youth where I always used “Good Morning” as a greeting that was high school for crying out loud. Still, she could have just been tired by the early hour of the day, so I didn’t go off on her. I explained my problem and that the roadside assistance people had given me a procedure to get the car out of park. She said since I could technically drive it; their first opening to have somebody look at the car is next Monday. I made the appointment, but it left me feeling very disappointed. I think if this is the average level of customer service I get from them then when we replace our other car, it’s not going to be another Volkswagen. As much as I like driving the car and as good as their sales department is; if the rest of their team is lacking in customer service then it’s not worth it.

Or I could just be grumpy from having to handle all this so flippin’ early in the morning.

¹ Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. All I did appeared to make things worse. After my fiddling with it, the EPC light came on. Though after following the instructions from roadside assistance that light went back out.

Trying to lose my business? © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

It turns out that they want to borrow the car for a bit to have to their insurance people look it over (since it was on the lot at the time of the tornados hitting Iowa City). I thought this more than a little odd. As I was busy getting ready for my trip to the home office, I kind of blew off the message. Then this morning, I got another call from the dealership asking for the car again. I called the guy back and explained that I’m driving out of town today. He said it should really only take about 20 minutes and they’d give the car a wash while they had it. He also said they’d bring a loaner by for me, just in case.

I agreed to let him do it and then immediately got a tad nervous about it. I checked their website and found him on it. A little bit later our receptionist called and said a guy from the dealership was here. I went up to the front desk and the only person around was a scrawny looking kid. But he was wearing a sweatshirt with the dealership’s name & logo on it. Then he held out a key to him and we walked to the parking lot. The key was to a 2005 Volkswagen Passat. The stationwagon version. With a dealer’s plate in the back window, a sales sticker on the same. I felt a lot better about giving him my key and took him to my car. He drove off, and I hopped into the Passat for a quick peek.

Oh my God! The wagon is fully loaded with all the goodies Volkswagen has to offer. Now I feel slightly cheated in that I won’t get to drive this puppy for my trip. Don’t get me wrong, I love our new car and our new car does have more gadgets in it than any car I’ve ever owned. But still, that Passat sitting outside if so dang plush and luxurious. I could definitely enjoy driving that card. :D Oh well, at least I’m getting a free car wash. Though, now that I think about it; I’m wondering if I should have asked them to top off the gas tank. With gas at $2.84/gallon, that would have been a nice bit of savings for me. *shrug* That’s probably being a little greedy and they’ve been good to me already.

Daaaaang, that’s loaded! © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

• We survived the tornados and hail that hit our area a week ago. Our apartment and cars were not even get damaged by the storm. Below are a few links to some of the stores online about what happened.
  • Press-Citizen.com | Tornado Coverage
  • USATODAY.com — Iowa tornado damage tops $12 million
  • Radio Iowa: Emergency calls from Iowa City tornadoes released
  • CNN.com — Tornadoes rip through eastern Iowa, killing one — Apr 14, 2006
  • FOXNews.com — Funnel Clouds Reported in Iowa Tornado Threats — U.S. & World
• Last weekend, we replaced Ariesna’s car (1992 Ford Escort, aka Ghost) with a 2002 Volkswagen Golf (aka Grace, aka Gracie). The really odd part about getting the new car? Even though it’s a replacement for Ghost; Ariesna has been letting me drive it the most. Apparently, this is at least partly due to the amount door dings her old car suffered through in her office’s parking lot but it still seems strange to me. Then today, the dealership called me back asking me to come in and sign a new finance contract on the car. Why? Because they found me another offer which would drop the interest rate by 1.25 points! Now that’s what I call service. So a big thanks goes out to Carousel Motors for the excellent service.
• Last weekend, Ariesna and I looked at a house. But it was too expensive for the amount of work required to make it a home we’d want to live (namely a musty basement and some bad remodeling in the family room, dining room and kitchen). We showed up about 15 minutes early for the showing and the realtor showed up just short of 15 minutes late. He did eventually call to let us know he was running late… 5 minutes after he was supposed to be there. I was initially a bit underwhelmed by the guy. But when he finally got there and let us into the house; he let us do our own looking around without trying to pressure us and listened to the comments we had about the house to get a better idea of what we were interested in.

Real Life Recap © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

I was up playing Wild Arms 3 till about 3 am as I just couldn’t sleep. Most likely due to an excessive amount of munching on holiday goodies while downing glass, after glass of soda¹. I found one monster to fight that took around an hour to defeat but it jumped my characters up 4–7 levels! *grin* Then when I eventually got to bed; I slept poorly. Our apartment is just too dry this time of year and our little humidifier stopped working. This causes me to keep waking up with sinus headaches and a terrible thrist. I got out of bed about 8:30 — 9 and went back to playing the video game a bit more. Shortly there after, Michelle got up and gave me my birthday present.

What’d she get me? A case of blue balls Bawls. Then after lazing around most of the day; we headed out to the local mall to meet some friends.

I’d foolishly asked a bunch of friends to join us in watching the Narina movie with a follow-up plan to eat dinner together. There was one point that I’d not factored in these plans. This year, my birthday fell on a Saturday. Just about the last Saturday before Christmas. Traffic was insane and people all around were grouchy, though we did run across some nice people that helped us get around the parking lot². We went over to the mall a little early and bought a new humidifer and then headed down to the theater. We got tickets, met up with our friends and went in to watch the The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

*whew* What a movie! While not perfect, it was probably as good as we could hope for from a Hollywood production.
High points:

• The actress playing Lucy was spot on. Most of the other actors cast in the movie were also quite good
• The backgrounds were gorgeous.
• The addition of the Nazi bombing run at the beginning of the movie really helped to give context to the time of the story.

Low points:

• The costuming on the witch. Her outfits were ugly and just didn’t work with the imagery I have in my head for the character. Though I do have to admit the black , soulless eyes did work for me.
• The witch was not nearly as afraid of Aslan as she should have been. In my memories of the book, the witch was terrified of Aslan but the movie seemed to put them on a more even footing.
• Maugrim’s voice. The actor doing the voice did a fine job, but being the only character without a british accent really stuck out and annoyed me.

Overall, I’d say it was worth seeing in the theater and it is something I’ll be adding to our DVD collection when it becomes available.

After the movie was over, we headed to the restaurant. Oh, I should mention we had called earlier in the day to try making reservations but were told they don’t do that for parties of less than 8. And that they would have plenty of room for the 6 of us. When we got there; we were told it would be a 2 hour wait. We decided to switch to the Oyama Sushi restaurant. They seated us within minutes of our arrival (even though they were already pretty packed). Then they plied us with drinks until our food was ready³. We had a jolly time chatting and drinking (non-alcholic, for the most part) but all good things do come to an end and eventually we all headed home. It was a very good day and while I ain’t dead yet; I am a bit tired so good night, sleep tight and don’t let the space bugs bite!

¹ a.k.a. pop to you heathens.
² A few people threw their cars into reverse to open up bigger areas for us to drive through and things of that nature.
³ It turns out this weekend contains not only my birthday and practically the last weekend before Christmas but it’s also graduation weekend for the University! No wonder everything was so packed today! This also explains why it took so long for our food to arrive.

Ain’t Dead Yet © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

On those occassions, the fire department has car wrecks in their parking lot. The cars can be half crushed, upside down, missing doors, etc… Unfortunately, they finished up with their training and removed the cars before I got over there to take photos. *sigh*

Still, there’s also some new construction which just started up along my commute and I think it’s for an expansion on CPL. Given that they’ve only dug out a big hole in the ground so far; I think I’ll have time to get some photos before they finish up. :D

Morning Commute © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Mr. S. Bot, do you mind if I call you Spam? No? Good. I thought I would take a moment to let you know this blog uses comment moderation to prevent you from ever appearing on its pages. Additionally, I use a variety of plugins to prevent you from even showing up in my moderation queue. Unfortunately, you’ve managed to find a few ways to sneak past those plugins so I actually have to do something about you. I’d rather not have to do that and since you are never going to be allowed to display any information on this blog or link to your own sites from it; please give it up and go bother somebody else.

Sincerely,
Mark

P.S. I know the odds of this actually cutting back on the flow of spam to this site are less then the odds of me throwing a snowball from my office parking lot at the sun and hitting it, but it’s nice to dream. :)

Dear Mr. S. Bot © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

After work this evening, Michelle & I walked over to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. On the way back to the apartment, a fire-engine went driving by. I didn’t think much of it; as we live close enough to the fire department that this is a frequent occurance. Then we walked up into the parking lot and saw two fire-engines at the far end of the lot. There were a couple of people standing around but nobody looked paniced and they didn’t have the big hoses out. So we took the groceries inside and then I walked down towards the fire-fighters to try finding out what was going on.

Apparently, it was a small oven fire caused by a piece of oven mitt (or something like that) getting caught in the oven and burning up. I’m not too clear on the details, mostly because they had an extremely noisy fan hooked up to clear whatever smoke was in the building. Overall, there was no need to be alarmed but it was something of a shock to come home to flashing lights with fire-fighters standing around the place.

Heck of a surprise! © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

• Venus or Mars?
• Blind Boy Masters Video Games
• Physics taught via Super Mario Machinima
• IRA says armed campaign is over
• Free MMORPG Lair

Not from Pukka, but still worthy of notice:

• Millennium Falcon & other StarWarrs Parkflyers
• Shoot someone? Not Smith & Wesson’s fault. Copy a movie? Grokster’s fault.
  

  Got that? If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally copy a movie, that company is liable. If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally kill a human, that company is not liable.

  Kuddos to Les for pointing this one out.

• Spitzer Finds Life Components in Young Universe
• Ten thousand superballs rolling down a San Francisco hill-street

Pukka’s Links of the Week © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

• Copy the whole list into your blog.
• Bold the things that are true about you.
• Add something that is true about you.
• Optional: Add a comment after answer in italics

Survey Meme

1. I miss somebody right now.
2. I don’t watch much TV these days.
3. I love olives
4. I own lots of books.
5. I wear glasses or contact lenses.
6. I love to play video games.
7. I’ve tried marijuana.
8. I’ve watched porn movies.
9. I have been in a threesome.
10. I have been the psycho-ex in a past relationship.
11. I believe honesty is usually the best policy.
12. I curse sometimes.
13. I have changed a lot mentally over the last year.
14. I have a hobby.
15. I carry my knife/razor everywhere with me.
16. I’m TOTALLY smart.
17. I’ve never broken someone’s bones. Just my own
18. I have a secret that I am ashamed to reveal.
19. I hate the rain.
20. I’m paranoid at times. It’s not paranoia if they’re really after you. Alas, for me it REALLY is just paranoia!
21. I would get plastic surgery if it were 100% safe, free of cost, and scar-free.
22. I need money right now.
23. I love sushi.
24. I talk really, really fast.
25. I have fresh breath in the morning.
26. I have long hair.
27. I have lost money in Las Vegas.
28. I have at least one brother and/or one sister. 3 older brothers.
29. I was born in a country outside of the U.S.
30. I shave my legs (females) or face (males) on a regular basis.
31. I have a twin (or a triplet, or somesuch).
32. I have worn fake hair/fingernails/eyelashes in the past.
33. I couldn’t survive without Caller I.D.
34. I like the way that I look.
35. I have lied to a good friend in the last 6 months.
36. I know how to cornrow.
37. I am usually pessimistic.
38. I have a lot of mood swings.
39. I think prostitution should be legalized.
40. I think Britney Spears is pretty.
41. Slept with a Suitemate.
42. I have a hidden talent.
43. I’m always hyper no matter how much sugar I have.
44. I have a lot of friends.
45. I am currently single.
46. I have pecked someone of the same sex. (given that pecked means kissed…)
47. I enjoy talking on the phone. I wish I knew someway to reverse bold this answer; as I HATE talking on the phone.
48. I practically live in sweatpants or PJ pants.
49. I love to shop.
50. I would rather shop than eat.
51. I would classify myself as ghetto.
52. I’m bourgie and have worn a sweater tied around my shoulders.
53. I’m obsessed with my Xanga or Livejournal. Nope, but I do like updating my blog an awful lot…
54. I don’t hate anyone. I dislike them. To hate somebody requires you to know them on a much more personal level than I get with people I don’t like.
55. I’m a pretty good dancer
56. I don’t think Mike Tyson raped Desiree Washington.
57. I’m completely embarrassed to be seen with my mother.
58. I have a cell phone.
59. I believe in God. Though not necessarily your God or in the same way that you do.
60. I watch MTV on a daily basis.
61. I have passed out drunk in the past 6 months.
62. I love drama. (Somebody else’s, not my own) In books and movies only.
63. I have never been in a real relationship before.
64. I’ve rejected someone before.
65. I currently have a crush/like someone.
66. I have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life.
67. I want to have children in the future.
68. I have changed a diaper before.
69. I’ve called the cops on a friend before.
70. I bite my nails.
71. I am a member of the Tom Green fan club.
72. I’m not allergic to anything. At least, I’m not aware of having any allergies and somedays I really wonder if I might have some.
73. I have a lot to learn. I ain’t dead yet, so this has to be true.
74. I have been with someone at least 10 years older or younger.
75. I plan on seeing Ice Cube’s newest “Friday” movie.
76. I am shy around the opposite sex. Still true, though I’m not nearly so bad as I was back in my high school days. I got over most of this by making friends among the opposite sex and learning they’re actually people too! :)
77. I’m online 24/7, even as an away message.
78. I have at least 5 away messages saved.
79. I have tried alcohol or drugs before. If you live in an industrialized nation (particularly in the U.S.A.), then you almost have to have this marked. The majority of our food is loaded with chemicals and if you’ve ever been sick; you’ve probably taken cold medicine which is a drug!
80. I have made a move on a friend’s significant other or crush in the past.
81. I own the “South Park” movie. *shudder* NO!
82. I have avoided assignments at work school to be on Xanga or Livejournal.
83. When I was a kid I played “the birds and the bees” with a neighbor or chum.
84. I enjoy some country music.
85. I would die for my best friends. I’m answering this yes, but I cannot say with 100% confidence it’s true. If I saw them in immediate mortal danger; I’d like to believe I’d leap to help them without thinking about myself.
86. I think that Pizza Hut has the best pizza. None of the big chain pizza joints are any good and many of the little places around town suck, but Pizza House is great!
87. I watch soap operas whenever I can.
88. I’m obsessive, anal retentive, and often a perfectionist.
89. I have used my sexuality to advance my career.
90. I love Michael Jackson, scandals and all.
91. I know all the words to Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story”.
92. Halloween is awesome because you get free candy.
93. I watch Spongebob Squarepants and I like it.
94. I have dated a close friend’s ex. Nope, but there was one back in high school that I really wanted to.
95. I like surveys/memes.
96. I am happy at this moment.
97. I’m obsessed with guys.
98. I am bisexual.
99. Democrat.
100. Conservative Republican.
101. I am punk rockish.
102. I am preppy.
103. I go for older guys/girls, not younger.
104. I study for tests most of the time.
105. I tie my shoelaces differently from anyone I’ve ever met.
106. I can work on a car. I can change: tires, batteries, oil and possibly spark plugs.
107. I love my job. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! No.
108. I am comfortable with who I am right now. More so than I have in any previous part of my life.
109. I have more than just my ears pierced.
110. I walk barefoot wherever I can.
111. I have jumped off a bridge.
112. I love sea turtles.
113. I spend ridiculous amounts of money on makeup.
114. I believe in prophetic dreams.
115. I plan on achieving a major goal/dream. Someday I’ll buy a house.
116. I am proficient on a musical instrument. Nope, but I’d like to be
117. I worked at McDonald’s restaurant. Does 3 months at a Hardee’s count?
118. I hate office jobs.
119. I love sci-fi movies.
120. I’ve never been in love.
121. I think water rules.
122. I am going to college out of state.
123. I am adopted.
124. I like sausage.
125. I am a pyro.
126. I love the Red Sox.
127. I have thrown up from crying too much.
128. I have been intentionally hurt by people that I loved.
129. I love kisses.
130. I fall for the worst people and have been hurt every time.
131. I adore bright colors.
132. I love Dear Abby.
133. I can’t live without black eyeliner.
134. I think school is awesome.
135. I think pigtails serve a purpose.
136. I don’t know why the hell I just did this stupid thing.
137. I usually like covers better than originals.
138. I don’t like multi-textured ice cream
139. I think John Cusack is adorable.
140. I f**king hate chain theme restaurants like Applebees and TGIFridays.
141. I watch Food Network way too much.
142. I love coaching youth sports.
143. I can pick up things with my toes.
144. I can’t whistle. I say I can, but my wife doesn’t agree with me.
145. I can move my tounge in waves, much like a snakes’ slither.
146. I have ridden/owned a horse.
147. I still have every journal I’ve ever written in.
148. I can’t stick to a diet. I’ve never really tried to diet before. A while back I got a physical and the doctor recommended I try losing some weight, but so far I’ve not had much luck at doing so.
149. I talk in my sleep.
150. I’ve often thought that I was born in the wrong century. But I’ve never been able to settle on what century I should have been born into.

Survey Meme © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.