TURN OFF YOUR ENGINES!

http://www.wikihow.com/Increase-Fuel-Mileage-on-a-Car

If you idle your car for more than 10 SECONDS, then it is MORE fuel efficient to turn off your car and restart it.

WTF, I swear someone told (in fact I know who) that starting up your car takes about 10 minutes worth of idling. And I believed it! UGH! I think this myth is one that many people believe, and in America I was always afraid someone would jump in my car and steal it if I ran off some where for a second, in Japan I've been idling. UGH!

Actually I've only managed to idle about 5 times, since I automatically without thinking turn off my engine, but last night I idled twice! That is infuriating, since I thought I was doing something that would help reduce my waste, but it only worsened it.

I suppose in the end I should have been biking and NOT been drying my clothes in a dryer since we had such good weather lately. But, bad timing over sleeping, etc. Not using the dryer, not driving are things that while wasteful sometimes are difficult to avoid, but turning off your engine when idling for more than 10 seconds is not, so everyone TURN OFF THOSE ENGINES!

I used to wonder about the buses that did that, but I assumed they had designed them to be more efficient at turning off and on, but no they just have the right idea.

This leads me to something else. I really need to fact check everything I hear, because I rarely forget things, even mis-information. Much like this stupid 10 minutes rule WTF person who told me this.

Anyhow, yesterday I heard a place name. I knew of the place simply because I heard it before, but I had no idea from where. I knew no one from the area... then it hit me a little bit later.

When I first came to Japan about 2 years ago, actually 21 months ago in August it was sports day practice and a P.E. teacher was talking to me and some students. She told me her old school was in Munekata and the two students had no idea where it was and she was shocked. It was something that was said off hand and I rarely talk to this teacher now, it is something that I would not be able to think of unless the situation was prompted, but hiding in my brain is a lot of insanely inane facts.

But only with-in the last three years, so if you want to tell me something insane, wait about three years and then I'll forget, because man after three years I think I mind wipe myself.

Facebook has recently been "finding" possible friends for me, and as I scan through them some of them look vaguely familiar, and since they graduated the same year as me, and from the same school from me I SHOULD know them, but I have no clue. So while I may be able to remember over 300 of my students names and whatever the hell else they told me (birthdays, pet names, who they like, favorite musician) after three years I probably won't be able to recognize their faces. I wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing... As it is right now, I'm pretty thankful for even the three year window. Forgetting things en mass has it's perks too, though these last two years have been so wonderful, I'd hate to forget those memories...