Plate O' Shrimp

New Blogs

2008-09-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

I have some new blogs that I've been posting to recently. I'm trying to break things up a bit by theme, and separate personal from professional, play from work. I've stopped writing business reviews in my main web design blog - Pleasanton Web Design Blog. Instead, I am posting favorable reviews and plugs in my Compare 4 Consumers Blog. The negative reviews go in ComplainerMan. My non work-related, fun-time posts go to The New Plate0Shrimp.

Against Self-Checkout - Now at Safeway!

2008-04-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

In my previous post I mentioned that I'm not a fan of self-checkout, in grocery stores, or anywhere. Companies don't offer self-checkout because it's more efficient. It's not. They don't offer it because it is better for the customer. It isn't. It's a pain in the butt. The only purpose of installing a self-checkout is saving money by being able to fire checkers, and replace their labor with yours - the customer.

My fiance and I were driving back after picking up a malti-poo puppy from a breeder's agent in San Ramon. We took a wrong turn and ended up driving by Safeway on Bollinger Canyon Road. At that point he doggie wasn't feeling well and barfed all over my passenger, so I ran in to grab a roll of paper towels.

As with all stores featuring self-checkout, this was understaffed. Huge line in the express lane, and complicated rain-check transaction in the only other open check-stand. So, because of the urgency of the barf situation, after waiting in both lines, I bailed to the self-checkout. One item, on sale for $.79. I followed all of the prompts and entered all of the transaction information. After my ATM transaction was completed, however, the recorded voice kept demanding that I select a transaction-type. When I pushed on the screen nothing happened. So I just left. No one seemed to care. The "customer service" person was too busy in a personal conversation with her friend to notice.

Lucky Keeps the Penny (or Pennies)

2008-03-19T11:32:00.001-07:00

I just got back from Lucky (formerly Albertsons), the only grocery store I've been to that uses self-checkout. Why a grocery shopper would opt to do the work themselves (unpaid) while replacing a paid checker who is now out of a job is beyond me. I'm sure Lucky loves not having to pay those checkers, and certainly doesn't mind making you do the work. But I digress.

So my boss at ADP told me yesterday that Clementine tangerines were on sale for $5.99 at Lucky. That's a savings of $2 over the Safeway price, so I went over to make the purchase. When the time came to receive my change of a penny, the checker said sincerely and with feeling "Thank You." I guess she meant "Thank you for the penny." Don't get me wrong, I didn't want the penny, but is the first time that a cashier at a major corporate enterprise has not offered to give me the change owed, even if it was just a penny.

There are two conclusions that can be drawn from this. 1) I was dealing with a renegade cashier who took it upon herself to take her till out of balance and not offer me my change, or 2) Lucky has instituted a policy of not offering change if it's a penny, or two pennies, or some other insignificant amount. Over tens of thousands of transactions this can add up, not to a lot of money, but something that adds to the bottom line. If this is official Lucky policy, however, I would rather the collect my pennies and give them to charity, rather than keeping them. The self-checkout already makes Lucky look like a low-end, miserly, bottom-feeding grocery store. They don't need this additional help.

Attack of the Walnut Thief

2007-08-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we obtained come walnuts from my Mom's walnut tree. She said she never gets walnuts, because the squirrels get them first. So we picked a couple off of the ground, and then some off the tree that were about ready. I figured we could set them out on my porch to dry. I forgot that squirrels are everywhere!

Here's the little guy staring me down. They are HIS walnuts!

Can't quite get at them? Guess you aren't so smart after all!

Giving me the sideways eye.

No walnuts for you... yet.

Plate O' Shrimp from Repo Man

2007-08-15T12:48:00.001-07:00

If you were wondering.

TechKnowHow Summer Computer Camp - Game Design 2

2007-08-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

My son is an avid gamer, and a couple of years ago, when we lived in Fremont, I signed him up for a video game design summer camp through the City of Fremont Department of Parks and Recreation. He loved it, so when I saw TechKnowHow Summer Computer Camp - Game Design 2 listed in the City of Pleasanton recreation guide, I signed him up, along with his sister, who's now old enough. At $350 each, it is a little steep, but we are looking at the computer game design major at UC Santa Cruz.

Here's the summer camp description from the website, http://www.techknowhowkids.com/

Create your own computer games with interesting characters, storyline, music and settings. You'll learn how to animate objects & characters, how to use scripts for 3d graphics, fog & lighting, and how to add screen effects, such as snow and rain.

Your first game will be a role-playing (RPG) adventure game, featuring controls for navigation, items to collect, power-ups, and offensive and defensive powers.

Your second game will be a 3d game with a first-person point of view. Travel through rooms looking for prizes and avoiding obstacles. Select or design characters & bosses, add sound effects, music, health, score tables, and more.

Take home your games to play on a Windows-based PC at home.
(The 3d game requires a computer with a 3d video card and at least 16MB of video memory).

Class Prerequisite: To enroll, a student must have taken Game Design 1 or be at least 11 years old, due to the advanced lessons.

Note: There is a $10 materials fee in addition to the tuition for this course. This enables students to take home a registered copy of the game design software so that they can continue to make games on a Windows-platform computer at home.

The one week camp is held at Amador Valley High, here in Pleasanton. You could call it "summer camp for nerds," but MY kids aren't nerds, so I won't.

Baby Torture

2007-08-02T09:03:00.001-07:00

I think this is hilarious. I still like cream of wheat and don't smoke, so I wasn't scarred for life!

Negro Bar State Park

2007-07-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

From the posting in the park:

"Once a Small Bustling Town

In 1948 Joseph L. Folsom purchased the grant of 35,521 acres once owned by William Leidesdorff, Vise Consul of the United States. When J. L. Folsom purchased the grant, the gold rush was in full swing and Negro Bar was bustling with activity.

Negro Bar, once located along the river at the current townsite of Folsom and extending a mile down stream was mined by African Americans in 1849. The small community had a store, two hotels and numerous houses by 1850. In 1851 the town had about 700 people. By 1855 the town of Folsom was established replacing the small town of Negro Bar.

Today the remains of Negro bar are few. The actual site location varies in the literature, while a few old letters reveal life as it once was across the river."

Tree Top Apple Juice Lid

2007-07-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

The lids on Tree Top apple juice bottles are tapered in such a way that incredible strength is required to unscrew them. Other apple juice bottle lids, and other juice bottle lids in general, are not so hard to unscrew.

I've always wondered why this is. Am I just a wimp? Am I the only person who has ever noticed this? I'll continue to buy Tree Top Apple Juice when it's on sale, but at the same price, I'll go for another brand. Any other brand that doesn't require such effort and cause so much hand-pain.

Annika's 2nd Birthday

2007-07-14T12:25:00.001-07:00

I ripped this video from a DVD using Easy DVD Rip, and output using Pinnacle 10.7 Studio.

Horsetail Falls Slideshow

2007-07-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a slideshow of some pics I took last month at Horsetail Falls

Monster Movie

2007-07-08T23:18:00.001-07:00

I just posted this old family movie on Youtube. This is how they did in back in the day!

Beer Review: Moinette

2007-07-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

It's been over 3 months since my last blog posting! Busy like the bee. How appropriate is it then, that my first blog posting after so much time be a review of a beer, given to me as a Christmas present in June! Appropriate.

The bottle has a cork in it, like wine, so I initially thought it was wine. It's also a pint bottle, so about the right size for wine too. But don't be fooled! It is beer.

It's a product of Belgium, which is par for the course for my beer sampling. Unfiltered and bottle conditioned. So it's a cloudy beer with sediment. 8.5 percent alcohol? Doesn't that seem like a lot for beer?

The taste has a hint of the typical of a Heffeweisen flavor, but, on the whole, taste more to me like vodka or some other hard liquor. Not a bad taste, but the high alcohol content is apparent.

Let's see what the beer has to say for itself. "In the pastoral province of Hainaut; the 'artisinale ale belt' of Belgium, is the Dupont family farm and brewery. Famous for their Saison Ale, Brasserie Dupont is also renowned in Belgium for their Moinett. This sturdy ale has an herbal bouquet that indicates its well hopped character. But unlike it's drier cousin, its body is fuller and rounder with a slightly sweet finish. Delicious before a meal and with foods like marinated meats and barbecue."

It's good with chili too. Take if from me.

Fred's Birthday Party 2007

2007-02-11T22:34:00.001-08:00

Fred's Birthday Party 2007
Originally uploaded by philis99@sbcglobal.net.

We had a party at Crest Ranch for Fred's *%th Birthday. It rained Saturday, but was mostly sunny on Sunday.

HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT (HAVA) LOBBYIST LIST

2007-02-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

From: http://www.blackboxvoting.org

THE ROAD TO BOONDOGGLE IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

(Warning: You might really hate this story.) This story represents months of original research by Black Box Voting. We went into this looking for the defense industry contractors we'd heard had lobbied for the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). That legislation has been blamed for the touch-screens (DREs) that showed up all over America. Well, that's not what we found. The real story on who was behind HAVA may come as a surprise to you. It was to us..

THE ROAD TO BOONDOGGLE IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS:
HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT (HAVA) LOBBYIST LIST

Question: What happens if you lobby a lawmaker for $4 billion in expenditures for touch-screen voting machines and go back to that same lawmaker two years later asking to dump DREs?

Answer: You lose credibility. It might be hard to lobby for other things. It's politically embarrassing. And your members, or funders, might have a few questions to ask about the prudence of your lobbying expenditures.

BUT HOW COULD ANYONE HAVE KNOWN?

The road to voting computers was paved with good intentions. No one knew that some of the programmers for voting computers would turn out to be convicted embezzlers.
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/14318.html

No one realized that the main sponsor of the HAVA bill -- Rep. Bob Ney -- would end up going to jail on corruption charges.
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/46466.html

Few realized that the federal testing labs, Ciber and Wyle, weren't doing their jobs and their overseers -- NASED and now the EAC -- failed to check their work.
Wyle failures (Bowen Hearing): http://www.blackboxvoting.org/itahearing.pdf
Ciber failures: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/46428.html

HAVA bought a lemon.

WHO BIT INTO IT?

Progressive public interest groups. Labor unions. Civil rights groups.

While many election reform activists are under the impression that touch-screen (DRE) voting machines were some sort of Republican plot to take over America, the truth is that lobbying for the DRE-seeking "Help America Vote Act" came primarily from the foundation of the Democratic Party itself.

Activists throughout America have expressed surprise at the Democratic Party's unwillingness to pull DREs off the shelf. One reason is simply this: To do so would damage the credibility of those who lobbied for HAVA. And those who lobbied for HAVA just happen to be the biggest funders and activist workhorses for the Democratic Party itself.

WHO INVESTED THEIR CREDIBILITY (AND MEMBERSHIP FUNDS) TO LOBBY FOR HAVA?

1. Public interest groups - mostly progressive
2. Big labor
3. Minority rights groups
4. Disability rights groups
5. Industry

Of these, the first four tend to favor Democrats but the fifth group -- industry, the group charged with writing the computer code that counts America's votes -- is made of vendors that are more often close to the Republican Party.

Democrats lobbied HAVA in but to a large extent, Republican-affiliated vendors executed the mechanics of the plan. Some would call this comical; others, tragic.

PUBLIC INTEREST GROUP HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. People for the American Way
2. Common Cause
3. American Civil Liberties Union
4. League of Women Voters
5. American Jewish Committee
6. Hadassah
7. American Association for Retired Persons
8. Public Citizen
9. American Network of Community Options and Resources
10. Constitution Project (Georgetown University)
11. Open Society Policy Center (Soros)

LABOR UNION HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
2. Laborers International Union of North America
3. International Brotherhood of Teamsters
4. United Auto Workers
5. American Federation of Teachers
6. AFL-CIO
7. UNITE (Industrial & Textile employees)

Of the seven HAVA-lobbying groups above, five are among the Top-20 largest donors of all time to any political party. All five donate almost exclusively to the Democratic Party and its candidates. None of the top 20 Republican donors lobbied for HAVA.

According to OpenSecrets.org, the labor unions that lobbied for HAVA have given nearly $150 million to support Democrats since 1989, and six were in the Top-20 Democratic PAC funders for 2006-06.

MINORITY RIGHTS HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.
2. National Council of La Raza
3. Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (MALDEF)

DISABILITY RIGHTS HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. American Foundation for the Blind
2. The ARC of the United States
3. National Disability Rights Network
4. Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
5. United Cerebral Palsy Association

Black Box Voting has been unable to locate the lobbying disclosure forms for the American Association of Persons with Disabilities (AAPD) featuring the vocal Jim Dickson, nor did we find any disclosure forms for the National Federation for the Blind (NFB), the group that took $1 million from Diebold. Misfiled? Misnamed? Overlooked? Omitted?

Link for NFB $1 million from Diebold: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/73/36492.html

COUNTY GOVERNMENT HAVA LOBBYING
1. Riverside County, Calif.
2. San Diego County, Calif.
3. Ventura County, Calif.
4. Miami-Dade County, FL

INDUSTRY & BUSINESS HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. Accenture
2. VoteHere
3. Election Systems & Software
4. AccuPoll
5. Danaher
6. Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs
7. US Business & Industry Council
8. Assocation of Technology Act Projects

Not found on lobbying forms pushing HAVA: The SAIC, the ITAA, and Diebold.

Diebold Election Systems Inc does not show up on the 2001-02 HAVA lobbying forms, but did lobby for elections issues in 2004 and 2005.

Also notably missing are the firms referenced by R. Doug Lewis of "The Election Center" in an August 2003 meeting. In this tape recorded meeting, he said that HAVA was put into place by an election systems task force which included Lockheed, Northrop-Grumman, EDS, and Accenture.

Of these, only Accenture shows up the lobbying forms, and there is no entity called Election anything, except for Election System & Software and another company, election.com, which lobbied for Internet voting. (See Chapter 8 of Black Box Voting for more on the Saudi-owned election.com, which was later taken over by Accenture - http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf - See Chapter 16 for more information on the tape recorded meeting: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-16.pdf )

What about Choicepoint? Choicepoint says it didn't lobby for HAVA. Choicepoint says it hasn't had any involvement in elections.

The lobbying forms don't show lobbying for voting machines, but a lobbying firm called Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations filed a registration form in 2002 indicating they planned to lobby for "Election Reform" on behalf of Choicepoint. Muddying things up, no 2002 lobbying form appeared showing that they did. In 2001, however, a lobbying form clearly puts Choicepoint in the middle of HAVA lobbying, showing that Choicepoint was involving itself in lobbying for the voter registration component of HAVA.

Choicepoint has repeatedly stated that they have "no involvement whatsoever" in elections, and in rebuttal to a controversial article that appeared for a short while on OpEd News, Choicepoint came on to deny that they lobbied for HAVA. More on Choicepoint here:
h ttp://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/17778.html

Choicepoint, a controversial database broker, clearly cannot state that it has "no involvement in elections."

Choicepoint stakeholder Donna Curling, wife of Choicepoint chief Doug Curling, has continued to fund election reform lobbying by providing funding for some of the activists working on the Holt Bill.

THEY THOUGHT DRE VOTING MACHINES WOULD HELP THEM BUILD THE DEMOCRATIC BASE

Those who lobbied for HAVA were convinced that the DRE machines would solve problems, helping more people vote.

1. Many of the HAVA reformers believed that with DREs, people with less education would be more likely to fill out the whole ballot. In fact, they reasoned, the DRE machines would be easier to use for educationally disadvantaged populations, minorities, non-English-speaking voters, and the disabled.

Few studies back these conclusions up, and those that do have generally not been replicated, or were not peer reviewed, and sometimes show methodology that is as flawed as the lemons HAVA bought. The occasional studies that have been done -- even those prepared by DRE advocates -- sometimes end up with troubling caveats. A Georgia study purported to show that "most people like voting on the DREs" (but rarely mentions the small print: The same study showed that the African-Americans surveyed distrusted the touch-screens).

2. The citizens' right to oversee local elections -- and especially the citizens' right to even get access to information -- has been all but eliminated through the implementation of HAVA. The original civil rights concept was virtuous.

Federal Government is the entity that enacted civil rights, HAVA reformers reasoned, so therefore let's ask the federal government to fix our elections process.

Be careful what you ask for. It just might get "fixed."

REAL SOLUTIONS

If federal government is going to correct anything, it should start with enacting tougher standards to give citizens Freedom of Access to Elections Information -- mandating that the system actually PRODUCE the information needed for citizens to make sure the right candidate was place in office, in a TIMELY manner, that is COST EFFECTIVE and USABLE, prohibiting removal of the information through proprietary claims.

And above all, local CITIZEN oversight must be protected. In almost every case, discoveries of problems with elections and the computers that count them have been discovered by ordinary citizens, not by government oversight, auditors, consultants, certifiers, or experts.

And if we are going to rid ourselves of the DREs, we need to get past the -- er -- little "problem" of the threat to credibility if former HAVA lobbyists take the courageous step of changing course.

They couldn't have known. Perhaps a set of tough investigative hearings can provide the evidence to brace those backbones for the change in direction. Look to Calif. Secretary of State Debra Bowen's well-prepped, no-nonsense hearings on the certification process for examples, and start by issuing subpoenas to Diebold's master programmer, Talbot Iredale, and Ciber's Shawn Southworth (who refused to show up for Bowen's hearing).

This thing can be done. It doesn't need a bandaid, it needs a disinfectant.

SEE FOR YOURSELF HOW HAVA CAME TO BE:

Photocopies of the lobbying forms are in the process of being uploaded to the Black Box Voting Document Archive. You will find lobbying forms for all of the groups listed above as they are uploaded here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/46539.html

Cold Duck

2007-01-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

Automobile Insurance and DMV

2006-12-30T16:45:00.000-08:00

I just received my new automobile registration and sticker from California DMV. In it was a slip of paper titled "Be Sure to Insure!" It says:

"Here are some things you need to know about recent vehicle liability
insurance changes:

On January 1, 2006, all insurance companies were required to report
insurance status to DMV for all private use vehicles.
As of July 1, 2006, law enforcement and court personnel have access to DMV
records to verify that your California registered vehicle is currently
insured.
Effective October 1, 2006, your vehicle registration is subject to
suspension if the liability insurance is cancelled, OR if your insurance company
has not electronically provided evidence of insurance when you purchase and
register your vehicle, OR if you provide DMV with false insurance
information.

These chances provide you with increased assurance that fewer uninsured vehicles will be on California's roadways.

(REG 1100, Rev. 8/2006)"

Well, I guess, that's a good idea in general, but a couple of things bug me about it.

All this information bouncing back between law enforcement and your insurance company is without your knowledge and out of your control.
Should your insurance company mess up in providing this information to the government, YOUR registration could be suspended.

Fremont Swim School

2006-12-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

My family's particularly horrible experience with Fremont Swim School makes me inclined to warn others in Fremont against choosing this swim school. The advertisment you may have seen shows a happy child swimming alone in a spacious pool. The impression this ad gives couldn't be further from the reality. When we first arrived we were dismayed to see a crowded pool filled with what looked liked 30 children of all ages in and around the pool. Chaos.

My son's "swimming instructor" couldn't have been more than 13 or 14 and immediately proceeded to have my son attempt to swim the length of the pool multiple times using a floatation device without the normal lessons on holding your breath, floating, kicking... nothing. Seeing my son struggle to breath and keep his head above water, I immediately stopped the lesson and asked for my money back. The teenager manning the desk said the person I needed to talk to was on vacation for two weeks. When I called back, nobody knew anything.

Fremont Swim School is a poorly run, possibly unethical company, offering a poor service. Don't subject your precious children or yourself to this business.

SMOG Certification Required at a Test Only Center

2006-12-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

I received my Vehicle Registration Renewal Notice a few months ago, and as is my custom, I put off renewing it until about a month before it was due, even though it required a SMOG check. I've been through this a few times, and thought I had it all figured out. In the past, even if I had failed the SMOG check, like with my old American cars, they'd just make an adjustment, I'd pay some more money, and I'd be on my way in the same day. Little did I know the significance of the words "Test Only Center."

First thing I did was got a list of shops in Pleasanton that do smog checks and got quotes. They ranged from $64.40 to $98 (a bit more expensive than last time I had to get a SMOG check). So I called back one of the $64.40 shops, Harry's Auto Repair, to see when I could bring my car in. Any time, as long as my Registration Notice didn't say "Test Only Center" on it. It did. So back to my search info, and luckily one of the other "cheap" shops, EPPS Test Only Center, was, well, a Test Only Center.

EPPS has a very sparse office. The light wasn't even on, but since it was day I guess the ambient lighting was enough. Nobody was there, so I pushed the intercom button a couple of times, and a guy showed up, took my paperwork and was off to test my car. Not much to read while waiting except for the wall full of information from the Bureau of Automotive Repair about how you can get State assistance in paying for repairs if you are directed to a Test Only center on your Registration Notice. So that's what I read.

When he returned, the SMOG guy informed me that my car had failed and began to explain what I had just read on the wall. Yeah, I already knew that, so he just gave me the paper work.

I took a little over a week after filing my application to receive the "Letter of Eligibility for Repair Assistance." It came with a list of repair stations that you have to use. The only one in Pleasanton is Harry's Auto Repair. So, letter of eligibility in hand, I called Harry to set up an appointment. No appointment is necessary, but since Harry is required by the State to keep my car on the premisis from diagnosis to completion of repair, it will take about a week to get my car back. He says the State can be a pain to deal with. And since the State will not reimburse for rental car, and my registration is soon expiring, the fun has just begun.

Trick or Turkey?

2006-12-05T22:45:00.000-08:00

They made me color in my comic for the second edition of the ADP production newsletter. Here it is all colorful:

Existentialist Humor

2006-12-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

"I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves."

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)

Another Comic Strip

2006-11-29T22:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I won the comic strip contest at work again. I was the only entrant, so that diminishes the glory a bit. I also only had an hour to do a concept version (10 - 11 pm the night before it was due). I tried to talk another guy at work into rendering it for me, but he wouldn't do it, so I entered it as is. I think it looks crappy, but I'm putting it up here any way. I won god damn it! Now where's my prize?

Thanksgiving Video

2006-11-26T08:51:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving! I made this video to test out my new Pinnacle Moviebox(TM) and Studio 10 Software. I opted for a lower quality setting because it is pretty long, but in hindsight it would have been better to either make the size smaller or edit it to a shorter duration.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2006-11-24T19:54:00.000-08:00

I had access to my step-dad's Kodak Easyshare 7590 and took some family pics. I took the first using timer. It is going to be on the Crest Ranch website. The second pic was taken by Louise:

Car Review - 2006 KIA Optima

2006-11-12T09:11:00.000-08:00

Due to my crash last month, I had the bumper on my 1998 Toyota Camry V6 LE replaced, courtesty of the other driver's insurance. While my car was in the shop, I drove a new KIA Optima LX. The LX is for "Luxury." It had just over 1000 miles on it, and the new car smell was a bit much at times.

The color was the Deep Ocean Blue. Very nice color. I think my next car will be that color if the choice is available. First thing I noticed was this car was pretty peppy. Either peppy, or the accelerator pedal was improperly calibrated, because I just tapped it and was almost rocketed into another car in the Enterprise lot. Anyway that took some getting used to.

A feature that appealed to me was the ability to turn off the front passenger airbag. Handy if you need to have a kid in the front seat. You can also control the sound system from the steering wheel. Nice to have one less distraction while driving, once you get the hang of using the controls without looking at them. The rear passenger seat had a large pulldown armrest with storage inside, which is handy if you have two kids back there who squabble now and then. Of course who gets to use the storage? Ok maybe not a good thing.