UPDATE: I should really put the day of the “no post” up to eliminate any confusion about which day I’m talking about (which was Tuesday night).

Anyway, ever had one of those days where your ex-wife calls you to tell you that (1) instead of paying her mortgage, she chose to make other decisions with her money?  And, oh by the way, (2) the bank didn’t like that she didn’t make the payments, so, after a few discussions with the bank, (3) the bank put it up for auction and sold it.  Finally, (4) she was now calling me to let me know what had happened so that I could help support the kids through this emotionally!

Now, because my 3 kids live there and because I personally have $30k in equity (and she has $220k in equity), this is no minor mistake. Despite talking with her several times, I doubt I’m getting the full story.  She’s not stupid, but this was beyond dumb.

Seriously, what was she thinking?

So, while I like a break now and then, I would have much rather not had to have a break at all  ….

============

Sorry, I had a late night of driving. Drop by tomorrow PM for posts.

thx,

– Dave

Without Craigslist or eBay I doubt eWillys would exist. Therefore, I try to keep up with news about those two companies.   Also, after being a co-founder of an early online bartering system we called BarterFarm back in 2000 (see logo to the right), I have followed eBay, Craigslist, and other online classified-based companies over the past decade.     So, I found this article today in the Guardian very interesting.  I thought maybe a few readers would be interested in this too.

I knew that eBay had managed to purchase a sizeable chunk of Craigslist back in 2004, but I didn’t know the following.

1) eBay is fighting to get a board of directors position on the Craigslist board, because they own 28% of the company.

2) To keep this from happening, Craigslist has been attempting to dilute ownership so that eBay will own less than 25% of the company, which keeps eBay from being able to demand a board seat.

3) I knew that there are only a handful of employees at Craigslist (maybe 20?), but the revenues last year for Craigslist totaled about $100m.  That’s much, much higher than I expected!  Given the size of their employee base, I suspect they are either contracting out a lot of services or raking in a lot of cash.

4) eBay launched Kijiji, a competing classified website which I have seen around, but never took very seriously.

I’m not saying one venture is better than the other, but eBay would eat their own children, while Craigslist is a community focused, egalitarian venture (hence the lack of ads, the lack of a national or international company sponsored search engine, etc).  One is public, while the other is private.  One is entrenched in the center of San Jose and Silicon Valley, while the other is situated in the heart of San Francisco.  eBay only obtained ownership by purchasing private stock from an early founder or investor (I can’t remember which); this didn’t make the other owners very happy.  Therefore, this relationship is destined for a rocky relationship of some kind.

I found this example of a Dashboard at the Jeep 4×4 Center website.  I thought the details were really nicely exploded.  I’d like to build something like this for various jeeps.  It would certainly help me remember what is supposed to be where on various flatties.  Anyone run across diagrams like this for flatties?

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $1200.

I suppose the story goes like this, “One day, I parked it in the field and couldn’t start it, so I left it there …”?

“Perfect project vehicle or parts car. Has not run but 4 cyl. motor still turns.”

Updates will occur infrequently tonight in-between Nazi Zombie sessions tonight (Karson’s visiting 🙂 )

This could be a good deal for someone.

“aluminum half cab , doors, m38 windshield frame 250 obo call Aaron @ 810 650 2136 ”

http://porthuron.craigslist.org/pts/1468031244.html

My Broadband is acting slow tonight, so more updates will need to wait til tomorrow.

– Dave

This pic of kids on a jeep was too precious to resist …

I ran across this story of Thomas Tugend on CNN.  It included a video with a great pic of him in a jeep (seen above sitting in the jeep).  The story also reminded me of some family history of my own.  My Great Grandfather was born in Nassau, Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1859.  He loved both Germany and the U.S.  One of his 5 daughters moved to Germany and married a German Military Officer in 1892, who would fight the Allies in WWI (don’t know if he survived — she would die in the WWII 1944 bombing of Hanover).  I’d like to know what was going through my Great Grandfather’s mind as WWI broke (but then, I’m the family history buff).

However, Thomas Tugend is still alive and provides this interesting interview on his experience.

UPDATE: Jim gave me some good advice on going with some ‘flat glass’ shops rather that windshield specific shops.  I’ve asked for some quotes and will provide updates on my quest.  Thanks Jim!

I need to have a windshield cut and I don’t have the old windshield glass to use as a template.  I’ve gotten one quote for about $200 to have the glass templated, cut and installed (which seems a bit high to me).  I think if I had the template, I could get the price lowered. Anyone have such a template?

Then I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be useful to have a series of windshield glass templates for a variety of jeeps in PDF form that could be downloaded and printed (probably have to printed at a Kinkos).  If anyone knows of any existing templates online, please let me know.

I”m not sure what exactly needs to be done, but the price seems a little high for a project.

“PROJECT JEEP !!!!! 5 NEW PRO COMP MUDDERS 33/12.5/15 TIRES, 5 NEW STEEL BLACK WHEELS, 4 NEW RANCHO 5000 SHOCKS, NEW RANCHO SPRINGS AND SHACKLES, NEW BEST TOP SOFT TOP (still in box), SM465 TRANNY MATCHED TO A DANA 20 TRANFER CASE (both rebuilt), NEEDS MORE WORK JUST DON’T HAVE TIME OR THE DESIRE TO DO ANYMORE, ASKING $4250.00 OR BEST OFFER, TITLE IN HAND.”

http://fresno.craigslist.org/cto/1448321272.html

No updates tonight.  Enjoy Halloween and set your clocks back!

When I got to “dickhead”, I started laughing.  Can someone help him out?  Tell him eWillys sent you and if he doesn’t know what eWillys is, then tell him to drop by the website.

“I have a 1942 willys mb,that has extensive damage to the Drivers side of the tub.What I need is sombody that Has a tub that is intacted,with the slots for the ax and shovel to contact me so I can get measurements to make repair pannels.If u call I can tell you exactly what I need.I guess I could Pay you for the info,but most people who own Jeeps are not dickheads, and are willing to help a brother out,thanks.Brian 509-460-2577”

http://kpr.craigslist.org/wan/1411317869.html

Yep, tomorrow is September 19, International Talk like a Pirate Day.  How did this great holiday begin?  The story is it began with a couple of guys on a racquetball court when they spontaneously slipped into piratese.  Following the match, having had more fun than ever, they decided there needed to be a ‘Talk like a pirate day’.  So, on June 6, 1995, they arbitrarily decided to make September 19 (a day picked because nothing else happened on that day) the magic day.

All they needed now was a spokesperson, someone to inform the masses.  Who better, they thought, then Dave Barry.  Well, it took 7 years, but they finally got Dave’s attention and he wrote a column about their unique holiday.

There were a few strange quirks to the old comments subscription system so I have installed a new one.

What does this mean to you?

1)  Re-subscribe: You might have to re-subscribe to those posts that you were previously following (sorry about that).  One short cut for that is to sort your incoming emails by ewillys and then click on the post links to get there.

2) No Commenting necessary to subscribe to a comment: You no longer have to comment on a post to subscribe to it.

How does it work?

When you want to follow comments about a post, you scroll to the bottom of the whole post or click on the comments link at the top of a post.  Then you’ll see two options for receiving comments on the post via email.

Either (1) make a comment,  click the “notification box”, and then click the submit button to submit your comment OR don’t make a comment, enter your email address and click on the “subscribe” button.

If you have any questions, email me at d@ewillys.com.

As you can see,  a couple days ago I updated the site design.  I had several reasons for doing this.  (1) the drop down menus were sucking, (2) the drop down menus wouldn’t allow me to do the top sliders like I tested (3)  the previous design was having some problems in Internet Explorer, and (4) the logo design wasn’t well designed for t-shirts, merchandise and an expansion beyond the web.

The next step in the process is to go back through all my posts and reorganize them into new sections, so changes will be ongoing …

– Dave

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $975

This looks like a very good deal on a vintage looking IH.

“1969 IH Travelall 1100 (1/2 ton 2×4). Runs, drives, registered. AC, PS, 392 V8, 4 spd, and limited-slip type differential. Straight and solid. No door mirrors. Will consider parting-out. Trades considered ( willys mb cj jeep ford gpw dodge wc m37 kaiser m715 international scout vw beetle thing buick riviera honda yamaha suzuki kawasaki street bike ).  Email or call Drew at 601.2468. Please make certain to reference the truck so that I can discern legitimate email from spam.”

I spent the day pondering a new design for ewillys.   One goal was to get more of a script for the ewillys brand that I could use to create t-shirts, etc with.  Also, I wanted to reorganize things a bit.  Finally, I want to more tightly incorporate the dynamic areas into the overall design (similar to what I have tested in the current design).  NOTE:  I haven’t filled in anything in the sidebar, but most of the side bar info on the current design would appear in the sidebar of the new design.  click on the pic to get the full effect.