Dancing together.

This is a preview of my annual Anime Expo recap. Preview because I have yet again forgot to do regular update during the con. Oops. This is also being done from my iPod touch, so typing is a little more difficult than it otherwise would be. Long story short? Met a bunch of prople, some who I only see once a year, others I saw at AX for the first time, others who were completely new. Bought a bunch of stuff, swag list to follow (for me and Ash, AX is bigger than Christmas). Oh, and owned up at the arcade. I have fun so don't judge me! I'll tell you all about it later.

<3

Whoa, return of pics! I haven’t posted any I a while and I figured people got sick of reading a whole bunch of crap anyway. Currently Ash (pictured) is in New York, leaving me all alone. I’ve been bored out of my mind. And lonely. Etc. Just saying. God does she look beautiful. After her, I’ve been also not been spending much time with the Miata. She’s pretty dirty and I can’t motivate myself to wash her. I did pick up a Aperture Laboratories parking permit and replaced the chocobos with a Weighted Companion Cube.



I hope you enjoy the random pic of the Delorean, Back to the Future style.





According to the back of that bus, it’s coming up on that time again. Anime Expo. With Ash away (sad), I’ve taken the opportunity to try to get in shape a bit by hitting Arcade Infinity more often. That got me there and the 5th Mix there keeps me interested. And I must say, I’ve met a lot of people over the past weekend. Looks like I won't be completely out of shape when AX rolls around. I suppose it’s not just for the arcade room, but AX is a hugely physical activity. That’s probably why so many out of shape otakus sweat so much and why it in turn reeks so badly.

More AX chatter! I don’t actually have any, but it felt like the right thing to continue to. I’m wondering what I’ll do this year. I’m usually at the arcade (I think everyone who reads this knows that), but I think after six years of doing the same arcade stuff, I’m starting to have doubts, wait, is that the right word? Hesitation. Maybe just a lack of excitement. It’s fun and I’m definitely looking forward to it, but not the level of excitement I usually experience.

Whatever. If you want, I’ll be at AI tonight.

<3

Kat Khommarath is now following me on Twitter. Weird. How do these people find me? Anyway, even though I have a ton of entries I haven't posted (I'll get to an omnibus entry some time), I'll put up a placeholder.

I just came back from Shinsengumi. It's a restaurant nearby which specializes in Hakata Ramen. Yummy! The best part is that you can fill up on noodles whenever you want. If you've ever eaten ramen with me before this, it's my number one complaint. Not enough noodles. This place is like heaven.

Speaking of which, Left 4 Dead. The game I never knew I'd always been waiting for. It combined several things I love. It's based on the Source engine, which means it more or less plays like Counter-Strike. Can't say I'm bad at that. Then, it pits me against zombies. Hang around for more than three minutes and you'll get an earful about zombies from me (and/or Ash). Finally, it's co-op. It's not someone winning or a team winning (unless you play Versus, which I don't), it's either your team makes it or doesn't. Turns out I can lead pretty well, something I've always known (shut up, I'm cocky), so giving orders and having people FOLLOW is awesome. This game is made of win.

To run this, I've upgraded my comp. Spent more than six hundred doing so. Actually, a third of that was spent on an INCREDIBLE 22 inch widescreen monitor. I've never been into huge widescreen monitors since, frankly, I've never had the hardware to support it. It takes power to move a screen of this size, power I now have. AMD's Phenom 9600 Quad-Core drives my bad ass ATI Radeon HD 4870, a monster of a videocard. I chose that word carefully, it barely fits in the case. My hard drives needed to be relocated to accommodate the card.

Couple that with a Razer Lycosa gaming keyboard (a birthday present from Ash), the re-released Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 (the best gaming mouse EVER), and my Platronics DSP-500's (which I found buried somewhere, they still work!!!), and a HUGE table, my gaming environment is complete. There is nothing wanting.

And I got a Left 4 Dead hat.

<3

Well ok, I guess I just really like to write about nothing. This is in no small part t the new laptop I got. Wow is this thing tiny. And I’ll guess I’ll lead off my 2008 Holiday Loot List with my new Asus EEE PC 1000HA. Off of Amazon (don’t buy shit off Newegg, they’re garbage), this thing was dirt cheap. I don’t think I paid tax or shipping. Did I mention it’s tiny? Asus led a revolution in laptops. This is actually classified as a netbook, a weak but extremely portable laptop. Testament to this is the 10 inch screen, feather light weight, and seven hour battery. It rocks socks… and awesome socks at that. Plus it’s white. This is my first white laptop, my others being various combinations of silver, black, and shades of blue.

As long as we’re on computers, I also got a new mouse. When I say new, I mean I just got it. The mouse itself is actually old. It first came out in 2002. Not exactly cutting edge. But it’s award-winning shape and feel along with razor sharp accuracy keep it in the running as one of the best mice you can buy. Here’s how awesome it is. I love it. It is also Ash’s favorite mouse. My brother uses one. Ash’s grandparents use one. It’s simply a bad ass mouse.

I got some shoes! Yea I know that sounds a little lame, but they’re… special? They’re Piloti Spyder SV’s in… black and white. Yes, I’m predictable. Anyway, they’re my first pair of driving shoes. But not only do they look cool and feel good while driving, but they’re also comfy and have THE most bad ass laces in the world, hands down bar none.

I got some snowboarding gear. A jacket, pants, and gloves… and I got the lot for under $90. Awesome sauce. Top it off with a beanie and simply stunning set of goggles care of Sam and I’m all set to sit freezing my ass of in front of my computer. The guy we were gonna go with ended up having work and we never rescheduled a day to go. Did I mention I also picked up as a jacket and pair of pants? She got her own gloves. We still haven’t gone. Just as well, the weekend we were gonna go I was sick as a dog… whatever that means.

Did I mention my new iPod Touch? Probably, but in a entry I never posted. I’ll go over it a little now then. It’s a 16 gig iPod Touch. It's the first gen one (which means it doesn't have a dedicated volume button or an integrated speaker, but it does have a brighter, whiter screen than the newer ones). In addition to being an mp3 player (it does that bit quite well), I can watch movies (read: Top Gear), and I got a ton of apps on it. This means not only can I play games, but I can also tap out quick journal entries and make notes about stuff to download or addresses to enter into my gps later. Handy bit of kit that is.

Ok, now to presents! I got money. Mary got me PJs. Ash got me a Moogle! And a Shinra business card holder (now I need to get business cards made), and a Cyclo DS, which means I have a little homebrewed DS thingy. Pretty awesome.

I should sleep.

<3

Mmk, let’s get this started. New OCUBS show is kick ass! There’s so much in this show. Not only is it funny, as usual, but there’s a duet and instruments as well. It’s more or less a kick ass show.

New website design! It’s different… sorta. When I say different, I meant I changed a few things again. Well I think it looks cool.

Bought a new jacket. I love it! Yay Oakley for making kick ass gear. Damn them for making it so expensive. But it fits well and it’s soooooo warm.

Um… Miata’s about done. Well, I’ve got all the parts, but there’s a bit that still needs to be fitted on. The Flyin Miata Frame Rail Reinforcement still needs to be put on. It’s a bit of work, so that’s why it’s taking a while. But the suspension’s solid, wheels are fucking awesome, front lip’s on, and interior bits are all sorted out. Not bad.

Music. I like musicals? Well, they’re awesome ones to be sure. Wicked. Actually saw it too, at the Pantages Theatre, to which I’d never been. Wow. Defying Gravity was completely awesome, both the sound and the lights. Simply amazing. The other musical is Jekyll and Hyde. There’s a bit of it in the latest OCUBS show. Dangerous Game. The other song, Confrontation, is also incredible.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. We’ll see what’s next in this story.

<3

Let’s start off with what you’re expecting, the AX recap.

My knee still hurts. I’m pretty sure it’s been at least a little messed up since last year’s AX. I put way too much strain on it playing ParaPara too enthusiastically. Things didn’t get better this year, well, not for my knee anyway. Despite being mostly in one place, the Los Angeles Convention Center, my knee was still whining at all the shit I put it through, which included over enthusiastic ParaPara.

Man we were so prepared for this AX, relatively speaking. We had a ton of snack and junk food, as well as a bunch of drinks. As a rule, Monster and water cover your bases pretty well, but perhaps in the future, Amp and Rockstar would be better choices. I can do with any of them, but Ash likes Amp and Sam prefers Rockstar. Water for most everything else though. Family pack of chips, Poptarts, Lunchables, and ramen filled out the rest of the snack department. Having parking close by and a pair of small coolers (you have to choose your gear wisely when you have to pack your stuff into a Miata) helps stuff keep cold.

I like lines at AX. Sounds weird. Still, among other reasons, I met Ash in an AX registration line, so you can see why I like them. This year? No registration lines. Well, at least not for Day Zero Pre-Registration. Walked in (just in time, we were running later than I wanted to), scanned our shit, got our badges. Sweet deal.

After that, it was a bit of arcade. Nothing spectacular, but it was fun. After that, hit up the dance. Lousy 80’s remixes, but whatever. There were just enough people to still have fun. Fewer people are easier to manage. Stayed until it got lame (we can only take so much crappy music), then we took off.

July 3rd. Day One was pretty fun. We got up a little late, but that was ok. We’ve never seen the opening ceremonies before, no reason to start now. Met up with the others in the arcade. Hung out there a while since the line for the Exhibition Hall was retarded. Long and outside, not a great combination. Went back and kicked it in the arcade for a bit longer.

I feel I should interrupt the recap for an explanation of the arcade. Overpriced, but still a fun place to hang out. Plus, there’s always free entertainment (watching people fail) for when there’s nothing going on. In addition, while its usually quite large for a typical arcade, it’s still an easy enough place to meet up. The long wait lines for popular games (read: Bemani) work quite well for killing time.

After an hour or so, felt t was enough time letting the line die, so why not head for the Exhibition Hall? I think our party consisted of me, Ash, Jerome, and Crono. We walked to where we thought the end of the lines was, only to find that we were wrong and that we’d have to walk more. Ass. Yay for having Crono in our party! He unlocked a special shortcut known as “Hey Crono, isn’t that your girlfriend?” Awesome-sauce.

The Exhibition Hall is what it always is. We walked around and bought stuff. The Gravity booth, these are the guys who made Ragnarok Online, was pretty cool as they were giving away some nice swag via a spinning wheel and a raffle. We got there in time for the first spin. Well, a little late. I think they had already gone once or twice, but I still managed to get up, spin, and score a headgear for Ash. Heart hairpin and I didn’t have to collect a single coral.

Insert time spent at the Arcade.

I was supposed to meet up with my Otaku Parliamentary Debate partners, but not only did it conflict with the Anime Music Video ceremony, I had introduced myself to them earlier and was very leery of our chances at winning. I’ve debated for a while and I know what weak speakers sound like. I’m not missing AMV’s to yell at lousy partners.

I would instead wait a couple hours for the AMV’s. Fun enough. We met up with Cale, a friend of Ashley’s, and his girlfriend. She didn’t say much. The AMV’s themselves were awesomeness. I liked a bunch of them this year. The more and more I think about it, I’m not enthusiastic about comedy. Not just for AMV’s either, but movies as well. Chief among them, I find myself drawn to Lovestruck Radiance. Wow that’s a great AMV, in no small part due to the completely awesome song it’s done to. Let Me In (Darwin Hemstock Remix) by Michael Mansion. Ask me for it if you want. I ripped it off the video. The official song doesn’t come out till fall.

Insert time spent at the Arcade. Followed by the trip home.

July 4th. Day Two. Woke up (later than I wanted… again), restocked, and headed back. Guess what?

Insert time spent at the Arcade.

This, I think, is where Ash and… Jerome(?) went to the Exhibition Hall ahead of me. Maybe probably. I think there’s a YouTube video of it somewhere. Anyway, more Arcade time till I decide to go myself. Well, more like Ash yanked me along for better odds at RO swag. Our time spent in there was either doing Gravity’s bidding or randomly poking around the Exhibition Hall. A lot of our Exhibition Hall time was spent at the Gravity booth. Spins at 11, 1, 3, and 5 and the raffle’s at 4. Geez, taskmasters. Works though. I think we spent most of 3-5 there. Tired and didn’t feel like moving. Afterwards, we started the Exhibition Hall row by row, a complete sweep of the hall to insure we didn’t miss something. We got to about the beginning of row three before the hall closed.

Insert time spent at the Arcade.

Afterwards, I think we met up with Sam. We met up at his place. Jesse was already there and then Keith (one of his friends) showed up a bit later. We ended up going to Burbank (?), checking out a dollar book store, and then heading up to see Hancock (the theatre’s on the second floor). Kick ass movie. Got back to Sam’s place… late. Called it there.

July 5th. Day Three. Headed back to my place to change, restock, and then we headed back. Guess what?

Insert time spent at the Arcade.

After that, we finished up the Exhibition Hall row by row. Picked up more swag and tagged the Sunday stuff.

Insert time spent at the Arcade.

Eventually we got a good group going. Sam the Bard, Josh the Black Mage, Dee of the Voice, Ashley Destroyer of Worlds, and Jerome, among others. Fine, you want a name? Soul Stutterer. There. You’re stuck with it. We went and saw Reconstruction of Evangelion, Part One. It’s a focused compilation of Evangelion. Works out very well… assuming you’ve watched the complete series already. And watched it again. And memorized it. And slit your wrists, twice, to escape all of the emo whining. And came back as a zombie because Gainax commanded it.

After that, tired of Denny’s, we headed out to J-Town to hit up a ramen place. Hell of a wait though. We were about to call it when PPP (ParaParaParadise) Kitty’s friend came out. We had met her earlier while Kitty was playing and (thankfully) she recognized me. She and Sam kicked it back and forth. She’s Navy communications and into, among many other things, Korean stuff. Eventually (and this is a long ass eventually), we got seated. Food was good though. Called it after.

July 6th. Last Day. Sam’s only full day. Actually saw a registration line. Headed to the hall for a quick sweep. Finished up and then…

Insert time spent at the Arcade.

Stayed until about four, which was the supposed closing time. Afterwards, we… um… went back to my place. Lacking anything epic to do ourselves, we opted to watch epicness. Back to the Future 2 and 3. We had watched the first movie a while back, so this was nice. After that, we probably called it or something.

/end AX 08 Recap

Ok, now that that’s done, I can be random again. Swag list!

Shirts: Triforce, Heartless, Touch Me, and Overdose for Ash. Shinra Electric Co. STAFF. HALO CTF. Zombie crossing, zombie repellant, and Umbrella Corp. FLCL Takkun. RO Devi shirt. Random shop shirt.

Hat: Ragnarok Online. Replacing Sparco and Yukikaze. Looks like it’ll do.

Plushies: White Mage, Black Mage, and Christmas Chocobos. Angeling and Poring.

Keychains: Kirby jumping. Chocobo holding a book. Masked Moogle. Moogle Cellphone Strap.

Etc: I Hate You sticker. Life Sucks button. Wark button. Jenova’s Witness badge. Prinny fan. Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi print.

If you’re at all interested in what all the “Insert time spent at the Arcade” time actually looked like, some of it can be found here. http://youtube.com/user/Haganail

Oh wow, that’s like, the perfect transition into what I wanted to hit next. Jerome was showing me the videos he had taken, two (well, two and a half) were of me playing, one DDR the other PPP. Several people have chimed in that I look better in person, but geez. Just from those, it feels like I suck unholy balls. I probably don’t, but it feels like it since it looks SO MUCH BETTER in my head.

The shock of it all put a huge dent in my self-confidence. Hate hearing the sound of your own voice? Yea, imagine if you cared. Imagine if you worked at it. You know what the weird thing is though? I’ve NEVER heard anyone say my shit sucked. Aside from the very occasional “Showoff!”, I’ve heard nothing but accolades. Perhaps it’s because I’m part of a very small minority of freestylers, but I’d like to think people don’t give points for trying.

Josh said that my personality plays a large role in my freestyling. That I look like I’m having a lot of fun, that the whole thing is too dynamic to be caught on film. I’m not sure how dynamic your point of view is when you’re sitting on your ass, but it sounds right. Anna commented that because she’s aware of herself, she can improve upon herself. I consider myself quite aware of myself, down to small, subtle movements. But despite that, this is as far as I’ve gotten? Perhaps I need to kick it up a notch so that I can be more satisfied with myself when I watch myself or look into a mirror. On a not-so-unrelated note, I do think I look he way I want to in as far as my clothes. No complaints there.

Finishing up the conversations I had last night, would anyone say I’m NOT outspoken? Or direct? That I’m anything less than honest and open? I frequently tell people to make me aware if I’m making you uncomfortable, but I wonder how many people can’t bring themselves to tell me I’m excitedly jumping up and down on a exposed nerve. Josh summed it up quite well. “A lot of times you’re hitting more than you realize you swing.”

I love my new phone. It’s a Samsung Blackjack. Sometimes the Windows Mobile that it runs on can be annoying, but that’s totally canceled out by the fact that I can take notes on it. The following are based off quick notes I’ve taken.

“I think they should have adult merchandise.” – Ash, while we were in the Disney Store. She wanted stuff that wasn’t as childish, but you know how easily it is to be misconstrued in conversations with me.

My brother Joey and I were about to enter a local K-Mart. He pulled out some change to give to the Salvation Army guy ringing his bell outside. As soon as he dropped the money in the can, the area lights came on. Joey’s miraculous. His donation will surely do good, somewhere. While on the same K-Mart trip, I used the restroom, but I was unable to wash my hands because some elderly asian man was using the sink to brush his teeth. Just a little odd.

Y’know what’s ironic and more than a little humorous? People who are both lazy and impatient. I’d go on, but I guess it’s more fun if you’re there. Just think about it if you want.

On to longer, more abstract things. Y’know what Bruce Lee tells everyone? One his more famous quotes is to be like water. Smooth, flowing. I like to think I’m like this, but like everyone else, I’m far from perfect. I’ve recently learned I’m even further from perfection that I thought. Sucks. Oh well. But it doesn’t just apply to fighting. It’s my number one tip in freestyling as well. I would go on with this, continuing on to how you should also apply this to conversation and life in general, but I’ve grown tired of it.

Excuse me while I play with webpage layouts. I can’t really think of anything cool, so you’re getting something odd as well as any old stuff I can find. This will of course be thrown in the trash cuz it sucks. I CAN’T THINK OF A NEW LAYOUT THAT DOESN’T SUCK!!!

I also will be delayed by the sudden invitation to bar. I’m not a bar going type of person, the people I hang around with aren’t much in the way of social drinkers. But some of Sam’s friends were playing a gig in the Universal Bar and Grill and I was asked to tag along. Good music, but young people were scarce, limited mostly to the people there for the music.

I’m going to wrap it up with high-functioning nerds. While I was watching Jerome’s vids, there was one of us chilling in the Exhibition Hall. Wow, do I really look that geeky? Do I really sound like that? I asked Josh about it and he said that I belong to a higher class of geeks, one that he considers himself in. His definition was a bit broad, only separating the classes by stating that the lower class is smelly, pasty, champions Gundam series’ as god’s gift to man, and simply lacks a sound head on their shoulders.

This is quite similar to a note I had lying around. High functioning nerds. Like high functioning autistics, HFN’s have many traits that definitively classify them as nerds. More than a little interest in videogames, electronics, etc, association with other nerds, intelligent (if not also smart), and most importantly I think, acceptance and pride as a nerd. Think about people who deny being nerds. Yea.

I’ll save the Bonfire Fiasco for next time.

<3

Her legs are bending the wrong way. That sounds a little wrong, a lot wrong if you count the fact that I really like Bones (the TV show), but they do. Skinny little asian chicks aren’t attractive anymore. Especially the ones that show a lot of leg. She walked by with little more than a loose belt and it looked like her knees were bent inwards, making her legs look like ><. Ew…

Money’s interesting. More specifically, the difference between paper money bills. I had to ask for dollar bills that hadn’t been sneezed on. Don’t you really hate moist ones? The ones that have the consistency of used tissues? On the polar opposite end of the spectrum, the hundreds I was also handed were nice and crisp, as hundreds usually are. If you pay attention, some of them smell faintly of cocaine (I kid, but it’s certainly possible).

Miata’s about done. I say this again and again. But at least there aren’t any major projects on the horizon. Well, on Thursday I plan on removing the soft top (never used it anyway, makes the car feel like shit). Not as easy as it sounds. Thank God I have Sam to help with these things. Oh well. Other things I have planned are a front air dam (helps with high speed stability… also looks wicked cool) and new seats (racing seats, I can NEVER get truly comfortable in the stock seats).

I’ve already done some nice stuff to it. I put in a new head unit… which also required me to put in a new center console, since I destroyed it taking it off. New speakers too, door and headrest. Which reminds me, I’m going to have to find a new purpose (or placement) for those headrest speakers when I change the seats out. A new shift knob too. It’s still a wooden Nardi one, but it’s much better in terms of ergonomics and weight. Feels great. So does the new suspension. Wow fuck. KYB AGX’s mated to Flyin Miata springs. Yummy handling and a perfect drop.

There’s another one. The insides of her knees make them look all crooked and wrong.

So me and Ash are once again hooked on crack… I mean RO. In the background, or rather, drowning out the background (people are annoying), is Invisible Invasion, the background music for the highest level of Thanatos Tower. I’m relatively sure that all of the Thanatos Tower music is good, as is the stuff from Nameless Island. We’re currently questing to make headgears and wings and such. Fun stuff, but Ashley has a really addictive personality, so whenever she’s away from RO, she’s antsy. Best to keep her happy.

Me? I’m killing time until I feel it’s late enough to hit an arcade. I haven’t been practicing and I feel stupid for it. But goddamn, gas is expensive ok?

Other things of note? Found my iPod again (the tiny red one), bought a bunch of new knives (including one that fits in my wallet), got a new computer, got a new monitor, and perhaps some other stuff.

That girl? By no stretch of the imagination is she attractive, but that knife in her front pocket is an excellent accessory for momentarily capturing my attention. Always handy for a conversation starter. I remember someone playing DDR in UCR and she had a knife like mine. In my mind (which is a dark, blurry place to be), she will always be cool.

Oh, we went to Six Flags with Anna, her boyfriend, and a friend of hers. That is all.

I’m sad. One of my favorite comics ever, Dragon Tails, stopped regularly updating. Granted, that was four years ago, but it’s always going to be cool.

Sorry about the lack of updates by the way. Besides the obvious “I don’t care to update because most of what happens is between me and Ash anyway”, “not a lot has happened”, and “I’m lazy”, I haven’t gotten a lot of “do nothing time”. Not that I don’t have free time, but I bought a bunch of books, Sam bequeathed his DS unto me, and I found a whole new approach to sleep. Or something. I’ll update this now so I don’t go putting another finished entry in my folder without posting it.

Someone remind me to update the layout. I’ve been meaning to do that.

<3

Don’t remind me how long it’s been since my last post. I don’t want to know.

/sigh. Worst caffeine shock ever. I’ve been trying to eat better/less lately, so I hadn’t eaten anything since… noon? Anyway, Sam and I were on our way to pick up some parts when we decided we were really too fucking hungry. We stopped by a McDonalds where I proceeded to pound down three chicken sandwiches and a order of large fries. But that is neither here nor there.

Before I lose myself to talking about cars, I’ll talk about Ash. We went shopping on Sunday, and even though we didn’t find what we were setting out to buy (headset, skate shoes, dress), we did buy her the sexiest, most bad ass jacket in the world, care of the Oakley Store in the Irvine Spectrum. We also bought a matching shirt and hat. Sexy! Omg! Plus, it fit her like a glove and was very comfortable. I only wish I could find something half as cool. Its cooler than my Black Mantle, plus people don’t have to read to get it.

We also bought memory keys. 4 gigs care of PNY. When I was a freshman, I bought my first memory card from one of my CS teachers. It held 32 mb and cost me $30. I still have it today… somewhere (I think Ash has it). The 4 gig one? Same price.

I also bought a stock wing and a set of mufflers for my RX7. Turbo TII. Fast as hell. Scary fast. Still, it’s got abysmal mileage and doesn’t fit me as well as I’d like. I’ll keep it, but I’m going to buy a Miata anyway. I have my eye on a silver 91. Looks ok. Just a good daily driver. I have to learn to keep my shit stock. It’s difficult.

Ash moved. It’s a smaller place, but very cute. Perhaps cooler than the place (which I think has too many rules) is what’s around it. Open the front door and you’re hit in the face with the overwhelming aroma of In-N-Out. Across the street is most everything you’d need to survive a small to medium scale zombie attack. It’s also a little closer to me, which is always nice.

I’ve recently grown bored of CS and Drift City. I picked both up for a while, but bored again. I want to… be with Ash. Failing that, I’d like to be driving. I don’t know. I want to go on an adventure.

I love Wanted. So does Ash. It’s a one-shot American comic with a movie coming out soon with a cast that includes Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie. Other things Ashley likes are spirited driving, junkyards, and me. I love that girl!

I don’t really have a lot I want to type about. I could talk about America’s sense of entitlement or declining moral values… I could even talk about God and His enemies. But I’m tired. Those topics are exhausting.

Oh, one of the reasons this entry comes in so late is because Ash had my laptop for a while. No, it’s not the only reason, but I think I may have written sooner had I had my laptop. Go figure, she didn’t even touch it while she had it. Really, it was still on the page I was viewing when I opened it up again.

So yea, today. Just finished washing the car and taking pics. If anyone wants it, 3k if you're listed as a friend, 3.5k if not.

<3

There are probably a bunch of things I would like to write about right now. Earliest I can remember is the sense of entitlement that Americans seem to have. Another would be the general difference in moans of pleasure between races. A humorous one would be use of enumerated lists during serious arguments. A serious one would be my mom’s trips to the hospital and my very real evaluation of mortality. Or I could talk about cars again.

I doubt it matters where I start. In any… oh shit. It’s past 9. Ash and I have to get to the OCUBS show! Lates!

Oh hell yea! The sound was fucked up for three out of the four shows, but I got some sound tips from one of Ash’s teachers and we were able to have a rockin closing night. We’ll see what’s up from now on.

Right now I’m at the dentist’s office for my brother. Reminds me, I probably should schedule an appointment for myself. Been a while. It’s just one of those things you forget about. Oh well.

Been doing a lot of reading lately. I’ve really gotten into the Dante Valentine series. Futuristic magic-riddled world. Good stuff. Also plowed through a Batman book (Cataclysm, the arc about No Man’s Land), and maybe some other stuff I forgot. I couldn’t finish the other Batman book though. He’s just a pussy in that one. I like scary fucking ninja Batman. He rocks socks.

Car? I think I screwed up the hatch. I was swapping out the shocks when I probably screwed up the inner thread for one of the mounting points. Looks like I’ll have to take the hatch glass off if I want to fix it. Car’s also having problems starting straight up, which I think may be a vacuum leak, and the tranny’s not any better. On the plus side, I got a new front seat which feels much better.

Tomorrow’s SAD, or Single’s Awareness Day. Not for me though. I love you Ash! It’s the second Valentine’s Day I’ve had with her. Jesus… there’s some kid raising a fucking ruckus in there. Crying and screaming and what sounds like tossing shit around. *Turns volume up.* Whoa, did you know that in Word if you surround a phrase with asterisks, Word will bold the phrase? Weird. Anyway, I feel kinda bad. I thought up a pretty cute idea, but it seems like she’s working so much harder to make me happy. Whatever I did to deserve you, it wasn’t enough.

Make that today. Well, lets see when this entry makes the net. Right now I’m at the office while a guy fixes the copy machine. I still have to get my thing for Ashley ready.

Car stuff? I thought I had the leak in my hatch isolated, but whoops, wasn’t it. Car’s working well right now, but I’d rather it work not-so-well and know what the problem is rather than intermittent wellness without knowledge of the ailment. Started up right away this morning and did so with less gas in the tank. Weird…

Ok, here’s what I think may happen for the rest of the day. I’ll be here for another maybe… well I don’t really know. At some point, I need to go home and get ready. Clothes, stuff for the weekend, etc. Then I need to get Ash’s… thing ready. Mmk. Neither of those is going to take very long, so geez, what should I do to kill time?

<3

Hey, check this out! A recap. And after so long too.

Yesterday was cool. It started down here in Dana. I’m here because Tuesday and Wednesday were rehearsal days for OCUBS. Thursday Ash got out early, and Friday’s opening day. So what the hell, I stayed down here for the week. Thursday was her last day of finals and she got out around… 10:40 am. I think we went back to the house for a bit to change and get ready. We ate at Panda and then went to Trader Joe’s for some snacks (read: junk food, some of which I’m having right now). Decided to do some racing, so we headed up to Speed Zone. Well, we called up Sam and decided to head up to the Puente Hills mall.

The Puente Hills mall was really dead, but they just poured a bunch of money into it. It looks really nice now, with a bunch of furniture settings around (and nice furniture at that). But they got rid of the fish ponds in the middle that I really liked. Anyway, the first store we went into was Steve and Barry’s. It didn’t really look all that interesting, but they were having a hell of a sale. Everything in the store was $9 or less. Not a bad idea. Ash got pants and a couple of shirts and I got a cool Voltron t-shirt. We went around the rest of the mall and I think all we got was a pair of tiny Martinelli’s apple cider and a Jarritos Pina soda. Oh, we also got Resident Evil 4 for the PC. I wonder how that’s going to work out. I told Ash I’d buy it as long as she didn’t play it until she finished Resident Evil 2. Leon AB and Clair AB. We’ll see how long that takes.

We finished the mall and headed over to Speed Zone. It was about an hour before Sam got there, so we figured we’d play a little before he got there. It used to be $10 Tuesdays/Thursdays. But that stupid bitch threatened to throw us out when I asked for just one. Well let’s see. $30 to play in your arcade for an hour? Fuck off. We headed out to AI.

I went to the back to get some coins when I saw Kitty working at the counter. Wrong Kitty, if that’s what you’re thinking. This one is a taller, Mexican (or other Latino) girl, great at ParaPara and a huge FC fan. How could I not like a girl into rotaries? Anyway, while talking to her, Sam came up. Apparently I wasn’t answering my phone. Oops. Eventually got my coins. We got Ash started on Initial D. There are a dozen or more things to think about while driving and we tried to hit her with all of them at once. Yea, didn’t work too well.

Decided to call it for a little for food. We hopped over to Life Plaza. Pretty good stuff. I had pork chops, Ash had lamb chops, and Sam rounded it out with filet mignon. We also had peach and grape slushies on call. Good times though. Lots of laughing. Mmk. After that, we dropped the food off in the car, went to Speed Zone, found out that the closed all hella early now, then went back to AI. Well, , we hit up Cue. Holy shit. Everything in there’s in Japanese. And everything in there’s expensive. $10 for pics! Still, worth it. There’s a ton of customization you can do, and the pics come out pretty big. And the booth is huge! One of the pics was big enough for me and Sam to hang upside down with Ash sitting in the middle. Cool!

Battle of the Last Coins!

We went back into AI and spent the rest of our coins. Here’s where it gets cool. I gave Ash the rest of my coins and she went back to Initial D, and since the coin machines were off, I played Battle Gear with Sam. Ash had been working on the first guy on Usui and on her last token, managed to finish the course. The battle between Sam and I was a little more intense. We had three races. The first race Sam chose his 86 and I picked out an EVO III and lost. The next race, Sam decided to be cool and picked out a WRX while I chose a FC, a race I won. Apparently 4WD is really freaking hard. Sam had exactly enough coins left for one more race. Sam decided we’d be epic. He picked out his 86 again and I rocked the FC for a second time. Wow was that a close race. I was leading for the first of three laps, but halfway through the second lap, I understeered and Sam took the lead. On the third to last corner, Sam understeered himself and I took the lead… and the win.

Epic!

Then we went home.

<3

It's my birthday, but I don't really care. I'm 23 now. Ok, onto the entry!

Time for a new entry, sure, why not. Got some swag over the holidays, as I hope everyone else did. Did a little work on the car too. Lets see if I can remember… anything.

Nope, not damn thing. Christmas was cool, but I don’t really feel like recapping it. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been randomly traveling and hanging out with people, mostly Ash.

Nothing much has happened. Before, that would have annoyed and aggravated me. But not now. Yay Ash! This does, however, leave a gap for my journals. Enter… whatever her name is. Sam’s sister. I was over at Sam’s for some reason or another and a few of her friends came over. One of them was having “relationship issues”. Holy shit is that a loaded phrase.

Disclaimer: I like stereotypes. They help me make sense of the world. Everyone’s trying to step back and tell you that everyone’s the same. At the same time, they want to tell you everyone’s unique. Bullshit, you can’t have it both ways. So screw you guys, I put people in groups to make things interesting.

Of course, this applies to none of my DEDICATED (you’d have to be to actually be reading this) readers, but there are such people that I would like to label Casual Daters. Yea, the name is unremarkable. Anyway, CDs tend to be popular clique stereotypes. Enough money not to be overly concerned with it, interested in up-to-the-minute fashion, and only really concerned with which band is “in” at any given moment. Y’know, the people you don’t really hang out with. These people accept and practice the idea of casual dating. Dating for shits and giggles. Just because. It was convenient. Fuck buddies. Open relationship. None of those are in my lexicon.

You guys though, you’re shoujo fans. Even if you don’t know it, even if you hate shoujo, even if you think I’m dead wrong, this is how I categorize you. All or nothing daters. Always looking for “the one”, always looking for that song that you never get tired of. You don’t “say” deep things (god how it annoys me to listen to CDs talk about how “deep” something is or how “deep” that was, “Holy shit that made my two lonely brain cells rattle together!”, yea, that should happen on a regular basis), you live them. You’re interested in something you can actually become involved in. How involved can you get with fashion or the lives of famous people you’ve never seen? But god can shoujo fans throw their heart and soul into music, cars, or love. And for it, you are shunned.

Relationship issues. They’re not even dating. This girl wants this guy. The guy acts loving enough when he’s around (not saying anything committing though), but is apparently “too shy” to admit his love for her publicly and it’s starting to wear on her. She wants him to shit or get off the pot, but is too scared to fuck it up. Yea, he’s playing her and she’s too thick to get it. No, I don’t know why.

Quick detour that I promise will make sense. Remember algebra? Calculus? All those classes you really fucking hated? Well ok, which was more difficult? Single variable or multiple variable? Easy question, it was rhetorical. Apply that answer to problem solving with guys.

Guys are simple creatures. No two ways about it. Guys are one-liners. They’re jerks. They’re sweet. They’re stupid. Etc etc etc. Put a comma in a sentence and you are overestimating a guy. “He’s nice, but he hits me sometimes.” You have overcomplicated things. You have to separate things and then evaluate them. “He’s nice.” Okay. “He hits me sometimes.” Wait, that contradicts the first one. One of those must be wrong then. Well, “He hits me sometimes” seems pretty solid, no way to argue that. Ah, now to the question of whether or not he’s nice. ‘Nuff said.

This guy. “He’s in love with me, but he’s afraid to admit it.” Now let’s take that apart. “He’s in love with me.” You’d like to think that. “He’s afraid to admit it.” Now that’s clear. Ah, what other reasons can there be for him to be afraid to admit he loves this girl? Publicly admit it mind you. He has no problems “showing her he cares” in private (yea, I’m sure). Easier to deal with when you think about it this way.

Let’s go back to CDs. Unlike SFs, they have a tiered dating system. SFs are all or nothing. This is the one or why the fuck am I here. Ah, those crazy CDs. “We’re going out”, “we’re steady”, “we’re together”, (I’d keep going on, but this is a new subject to me and frankly, it’s also making me nauseous, so put your own in here). This dating system also has no set values. I can’t tell you how irritating that is. Rules are constantly shifting and terms are used interchangeably. It’s Calvinball.

CDs are also different in other ways. Because their lives revolve around such meaningless things, it is subject to wild change. Relationships based on nothing can change for no reason or for meaningless reasons. Well, meaningless to you and me. Since everything makes a difference, meaningless becomes meaningful. They’re more apt to make snap decisions because of this. Because their lives are ruled by impulses instead of rationale, their decisions aren’t thought out in the least bit. I’d imagine being a CD to be very irritating, but then, I could care less about what year my shirt’s from.

On to general advice! Be you a CD or a SF, a girl is a girl. And in direct opposition to “one-liner” guys, girls give double (minimum!) meaning to everything. Start it simple. Girls give guys “The Look” (yes, it’s capitalized). It, at it’s core, has two meanings. One, “I’m right.” Two, “Shut the fuck up about it.” It can mean many other things as well, such as “Now say it.” When I originally noted The Look, I had a much better example of it and it’s meanings, but being a guy, it’s become lost to a host of other thoughts, which explains why girls have to give guys The Look so often.

A better example would be when guys ask, “What’s wrong?” and girls reply, “It’s nothing”. That definitely means two things. One, “It’s everything”. Two, “You should know I don’t mean that, know EXACTLY what I DO mean, and now fetch me some chocolate that magically will not add a single ounce to my downright sexy figure that I constantly complain about regardless of its perfection or my cat will claw your balls off in your sleep.” Guys get this even more than The Look and even though they know what it means, by its very nature they are unable to decipher it. My girlfriend is awesome though, as she cuts out the middleman, and though nine times out of ten I can complete her sentences, simply complains about my lack of psychic ability.

The second piece of advice I have is the importance of 3rd person problem solving. This is why consultants get paid so much. Ideally, you and your partner should be able to talk to each other first before bringing your problems to me… I mean your friends (fuck I swear…). If there’s something bothering me about Ash (I’d bring up an example if I could think of one, my girlfriend’s awesome), I’d… talk to her about it. Sounds simple, but you have no fucking idea how often people have a problem with their significant other, their better half, their soul mate and true love, and promptly proceed to THEIR FRIEND to talk about it. My relationship with Ashley isn’t so delicate that, “Hey love, something’s bothering me,” will shatter it. I’ll call her at 4 in the morning to tell her I can’t sleep and she’ll listen as best she can and tell me she loves me. We’ll stay on the phone, saying nothing, comforted by the person on the other end of the line.

Most people, sadly, aren’t like this. Call your girlfriend at 4 in the morning and she will yell at your ass to let her sleep. For this 99% of the population, independent third parties are invaluable to problem solving. People in relationships are idiots, for the most part. They can easily solve their problems with each other if they were more patient. They aren’t. They hold the solutions to their problems in their hands, but can’t make decisions because they see things through a red haze any time they think about it.

Third person mediators have a easy, if irritating, job. During this entire process, you can tell the hamster in your head to take a nap. In one ear, out the other? No problem. Ask the person your currently helping to tell you, in a single sentence, what the problem is. Then ask them to list possible options they have to resolve the problem. When they’re done, ask them what they really want, what their heart is telling them, whatever. More often than not, they’ll make a decision. Whether or not they go though it is their own goddamn problem. You’ve helped them figure out what they have to do. Now back the hell off.

<3

This is here mainly because I'm bored. I have another entry waiting, but oh well, take what you can get. Whoa wait. LJ has a spell checker? Well fuck, now I don't really have a reason to use Word. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Maybe now I'll get more done. Hm... The "i"'s aren't automatically capitalized though. Maybe there's hope for Word yet. Oh right. I'm also here because I've been hanging out with Sam all day and due to circumstances, I had to come with him to class. I ended up crashing in the library though. At least I've got a laptop. Thanks Sam.

Random things first. I wonder if anyone's noticed those little blue reflectors on the freeway. They appear along with the regular lane markers. Did you know that those same reflectors are red on the other side? No shit. Weird.

I had to drop my brother off at Bosco's recent dance. Even though it was lightly raining, there was still a ton of people there. Pretty cool. Also cool was the scent. The combined smell was about the same as when I used to attend the dances. My brother carries gum to give out to pretty girls. He carries a few flavors, but his favorite to hand out is "Passionate Sex". No, it's not the real name of the gum, but he's apparently used it enough for a girl to come up, ask him for gum, then excitedly shout to her friends, "He's got Passionate Sex!". I think the idea's freaking spectacular and I wish I had thought of it.

It's unreasonably cold outside. I like it better than it being unreasonably warm, but better isn't good. I'd prefer it to be a few degrees warmer. It's 46 degrees in La Crescenta, where Sam lives, 51 where I am, and 54 where Ash lives. If you care, it's 55 in Jerome's city and 51 again in Josh's. Yes, I've resorted to the mundane topic of the weather.

I don't have any headphones right now, simple oversight. While I'm able to write, I can't listen to anything. Crying shame. I've been listening to Goo Goo Dolls. But I am getting pretty distracted by other things, such as webcomics and manga. Oh, he's back. Lates!

&lt;3

“I beat a man in rollerskates!!! In an… Aston… Martin…” – Richard Hammond

Nope. Nothing comes to mind. I can’t think of anything I want to really talk about yet. Always starts out like this though. Nothing to talk about to talk about for a while, but stick around and eventually I’ll get around to something more substantial. Just wait… it’ll be here…

Yea, I’m over the 240SX. I love the car with the exception of anything under the bonnet, it’s great. But it seems like with this particular car, I can’t get it much of anywhere without having to worry if it’s going to take a shit on me. I technically also have a RX7 TII. God that’s a nice car. I’m thinking I should keep it, but it’ll just mean problems for me. That car is mean. The fastest car I’ve had till now has been my OTHER RX7. Though it develops around the same 150-160 ish horsepower as my 240SX, it’s way the hell faster.

Horsepower doesn’t seem like an accurate way to measure how fast a car goes, well, at least not the cars I’ve had. Let’s use SP, scary points. Lets say the other 7 (150 hp) was 100. The Miata (128 hp) then clocks in at maybe… 85-90. The 240 (150 hp) lags behind at 75. My Lancer (120 hp) gets in around 65-70, and the Civic (102 hp) rounds it out at 50. That rounds it up for cars I feel I’ve had enough experience with. The RX7 TII is 150. It develops near as makes no difference 200 hp. And it’s not a linear 200 hp. Turbo adds a lot of scary points, especially once you start modding it. It’s basically the same engine as my old RX7, so it’s mostly the same… until the turbo kicks in. When that happens, the car rips your face off and screams into your eyeballs. I’m not joking. Watch some of the Saw movies. It’s kinda like that.

Now you go and tell me that I’m going to use that as an everyday driver. At the very least, I’m going to want to speed in it, not to mention all the assholes that’re going to want to race me. And every so often, I get suckered into it.

I’m hoping instead to trade it for a Corolla GTS, like Sam’s.

Well, no. I guess I’ll stick with the TII. I just love FCs. I don’t know, I just love them. I’m so torn.

Give me a bit to think of what I was going to write. I keep remembering topics, but in the weirdest places. I should really carry that pad that Ash gave me. Well, I should talk about tow trucks and concerts. I’ve got the time to do it, but I’m tired.

I’m always flip-flopping around. I don’t really know what want. Well, at least as cars go. My mom is torn between practicality and status. I’m torn between practicality and performance. I’m pretty sure I don’t want the 240. Just… yea. I’m pretty sure I want this one NA (not turbo) RX7. But I don’t know if I want to keep the TII. It’d be nice, but I could use the money. And I could use one less thing to throw money at. The 7 I’m looking at is in really good condition. A turbo engine has a shorter lifespan. Gah!

Um… I also need to talk about… whatever happened this weekend. Lots of driving.

I want that 7! I even like the rims. Weird. Grr… I’m annoyed! It’s distracting.

And now I can also talk about a SD trip where I go to see the Dead Sea Scrolls… not that I’m going to right now.

<3

In here, I’m going to talk about stairs. Specifically, the ones that used to be in the Santa Anita mall.

Well, for now, it looks like I’ve gotten everything done. Waiting on car and other car-related stuff. Nothing special on that front.

I love Ash. She loves me. We love spending time with each other, something we don’t do enough of. Something we CAN’T do enough of. So hey, no worries here either.

Something I did see though. Hm… Perhaps “didn’t see” would fit better. For a while now, I haven’t seen any really insightful postings here. I have to dig a ways back to find something like that. Yup, nothing insightful. I was checking out some old posts and I had deep shit back there. Mostly about relationships. I guess I haven’t given it a lot of thought lately. Thankfully, I haven’t had to.

I’ll delay my rant about stairs for a while. Remember everything… and I mean freaking EVERYTHING (there’s a hell of a lot of stuff back there, even pictures and charts) I’ve said about relationships, girls, guys, hope, etc.? Well, Ashley fits everything. I remember writing about giving it everything you have and more. Well, looks like both Ash and I do that. And wow, it works. Hell ya! Who called that shit? Me!

Living proof that if you both work at a relationship, if you both love each other enough, it’ll work. Don’t get me wrong. Damned if I’ve ever seen another “love at first sight” couple. I just , after a hell of a long time and many tries, got lucky. Someone just for me.

Scary though, isn’t it? Giving up whatever you have right now in the hopes that something better will come. Let’s say you have a girlfriend now. Scratch that, let’s say you were friends with a girl. This is a more common occurrence. I think someone used to say that its inevitable that if a girl and guy are friends, at least one will fall for the other. Ah, but therein lies the dilemma. Do you try to further the relationship? Do you take that last step, the one you take blindfolded with your hands tied behind your back? The one that you know you can’t take back. How many times have we tried and utterly FUCKED UP whatever friendship you had?

In many ways, it was a best case scenario between me and Ash. We fell in love. Low risk situation. God this girl is awesome and if it doesn’t work out, well shit, I won’t see her everyday. Ain’t the case for you, is it? This girl is someone you see at school, at work, at your chess club after school, or worst of all, your FRIEND’S girlfriend. Shit, that last one’s a doozy and we’re not going to go near it. In any case, the preexisting relationship is the problem.

And then there’s another problem. We’re getting older, so we’re getting better at not verbally vomiting all over ourselves when we talk to girls (well, some of us ACTUALLY vomit, but that’s neither here nor there). A new problem arises. We DO get a girl. Well, we settle for one. A relationship of convenience. Or a “Why not?” relationship. Instead of falling for one another, one (sometimes both) gives in. I can’t really see those apathetic relationships working, and even if they do, I can’t it see it being a very fulfilling one.

Ah, the other doozy. Not your friend’s girl, but the chick who’s just fucking with you. Sometimes literally. A parasitic relationship where one partner feeds off the other, whether it’s for sex, money, a place to crash, or even something as simple as affection. They just WANT to be loved, not too picky about who. MySpace whores.

Half a loaf is better than none? One in the hand is worth two in the bush? You could certainly make an argument for it, but what really makes this difficult is that it isn’t an absolute. Nor is there a necessity. Goddamn it’s GREAT to be in a successful relationship, but it’s an emotional roller coaster to be in a shitty one. Oh, and not a particularly fun one either.

I would prefer to make sweeping generalizations and faux pieces of wisdom, but this one’s a judgment call. If it’s been a while, or never, since you felt some companionship, it’s difficult to say no. It’s difficult to say no to any kind of affection. But I’m going to tempt you. If you’re not happy, if your roller coaster sucks balls, I can tell you I found something better. I found someone who loves me, who’s willing to work with me, who’s patient with me, someone who really gets me. I found my soul mate. If you can say that without putting down that bag of ice you’re using to slow the swelling of that black eye he gave you, if you can say that without looking up at the hole you punched in the wall after she cheated on you AGAIN, if you can say that and fucking mean it, keep it. Unless she doesn’t get why you like cars. Then toss that bitch out on her ass.

The next entry will be about stairs. Yes, the next one.

<3

Then there comes the story of my cars. There are two lines and they’ve finally converged. Which is well and good, since I like this car.

The first car I ever bought and owned was my 1987 Mazda RX7. Goddamn was the a beautiful car. And a wonderful deal. Built and pretty, it only cost me $2000. I traded it for a 1987 BMW 325i because I felt that the 7’s transmission was going out and since stripping the interior, the fumes which leaked into the car perpetually threatened to kill me. The BMW was traded for a CA18DET-swapped 1989 Nissan 240SX. I didn’t like the smell, it didn’t have power steering, the driver’s seat was uncomfortable, the engine had issues (that I think we resolved), and did I mention the smell? Recently, it was traded for an RX7 TII and $1500.

The other line begins with my 1995 Mazda Miata. Loved that car, and again, only $2000. After the top went out and after constant worrying about it getting broken into, I traded it for a 1994 Honda Civic. Wasn’t a great idea considering I was worried about theft, but it was a good car and I would have stayed with it. But money was needed and it sold for a song, $2000. The money later came back to me and I found a 1993 Nissan 240SX for only $1300. The car fit me perfectly and I loved it enough to work it out after it died at Sam’s place not an hour after I bought it.

Ah, but old cars always need work. The bill this time came to a pair of c-notes over the cost of the car. So I basically have a 240SX and the value of the RX7. I gave the 7 to Sam because I really can’t have two cars. It just doesn’t seem to work with me. It still needs the sound put in and some decent wheels. I have a pretty cool head unit to go into the 240, but really a really small amp/sub combo. It’s a hatchback, so it doesn’t need to be big, and it’s light.

But onto the car. I don’t know what it is, but I love the car. Even the 7, what I still consider to be the best car I’ve owned, never fit me as well as the 240 does. And it’s not jus 240’s. I’ve had two and I hated one. It just seems to be this one. It’s an automatic too. Weird.

I think this is it. The same way I’m with Ash. It feels perfect and I don’t want anything else. It’s just a great car to have. I’ve been saying for a while that when you buy a car, or when you want to mod one, you have to have a goal in mind. What do you want to do with it? Drag race? Drift? Autocross? I just went through cars and mods without any real direction. I think I know now. I want a ride. I like going from one place to another. I like knowing that I can get there.

And getting there isn’t just it. It’s the trip. I have to have music. I guess it can be said it’s my world theme. It really does reflect on what is going on. I play what I like, which reflects what I feel. It also reflects what is going on in the car. Whether it’s just me and Ash or if there are friends in the car. It’s also about how I arrive. I don’t want to arrive in a put-put car. I want to arrive in something I won’t be embarrassed about. It needs to be cool enough.

Ok, enough of that. I’m fscking tired. I can’t sit still long enough to write a paper unless I’m dead tired and on a deadline. Well, I always pay for it the day after. I’m just bored I guess. I need to go out and do something. Just something to do. Anything. My mind’s moving too slowly. I want to wake up.

Feels like that when I’m with Ash though. Feels like I’m doing something. There’s always something for my mind to do. I was going to say, “Maybe that’s why I love her”. It most definitely is one of the reasons I love her. It’s great to be around her. We we on the couch on… Sunday, reading our respective books. I wanted to get some air, so we headed to the park. It wasn’t so much a park as the grassy area near the beach. We got a sleeping bag and continued reading. It was a slice out of my fantasies. Reading with the one I love. Wow. It isn’t just reading. It’s experiencing reading with someone else. I guess it’s because we aren’t just reading. It’s like a dance. She’s cold and we have to move and adjust to use the blanket. We didn’t have pillows, so we had to work with each other. When I’m with her, there’s always enough going on to keep my mind occupied.

What else did I do over the weekend? We went to the Irvine Spectrum. I think we both have fun when we go out. She like being seen and I like being seen with her. She’s sexy, so it’s not a wonder why she likes being seen. And she’s sexy, so it’s not a wonder why I like being seen with her hanging off my arm.

Loving it!

I swear I’m so lost. Well, I guess you wouldn’t know it if you were in the class. I talk a lot, as much as anyone else in the class. Oh, and there aren’t many people who talk. But I’m lost because I don’t read. I follow the class well enough, but I’m lost because I don’t read and I’m still talking. Why? Why doesn’t anyone else say something? Annoying.

I hate not having a car! Not being able to go anywhere sucks. I guess it’s worse since I take full advantage of that freedom. Unlike a lot of people, if I want to go somewhere, I go. There aren’t a lot of people like that. Among those I know, Sam and Jimmi do that. Jimmi’s that guy with the Subaru 2.5RS. Both of those people can be found out and about. I guess another part of it is that I can’t sit still. I want to be somewhere else. Or on my way to somewhere else. I like being on the move, out.

I think it may show from the people I hang out with. I like Sam and Jerome because they’re always up for something. “Hey, wanna go to ___________?” Sweet, we’re on our way. Keeps me from being sleepy as hell (like I am right now).

I wonder how many random people read this journal? Not very many I would imagine. I am of the opinion that my readers are limited to those listed on my friends list and even then, it isn’t all of those. Just a few. I doubt that outside of Ash, Jerome, and Josh (yea, you guys), that I don’t have any other regular readers.

I mention this because in one of my classes, we’re doing a paper as an exercise for creative nonfiction. I think, for the most part, that this journal is nothing but creative nonfiction. Mostly recaps and reviews. Mix in a little stream of consciousness (I only say that to cover the sections where I type out of sheer boredom) and you have this journal. Well, to see if I’m right, I had some (read: two) people read an entry or two. Apparently my stuff is interesting.

Why? I don’t really know. I’d love to ask JOSH(!!!) this question. I’m guessing that Jerome and Ash read out of habit (with Ashley pushing me to write more often) and to see if there’s anything that’s been written that had them in it. But I think Josh has enough background and enough detachment (man, we don’t hang out enough) to be more objective and actually able to articulate what exactly it is that’s appealing and interesting about this entry.

Hm… I love this weather. It’s cold, but not raining often. When it does, it does so lightly. I love it because it’s easy to breathe. I like it because I get to wear jackets. It’s easier to control how comfortable you can dress. When it’s freaking hot (as it was this summer), there really isn’t much you can do. There’s a relative minimum amount of clothing you can wear. Ah, but winter is different. It doesn’t take much to be toasty warm. I love my Dickies jacket for this reason. It’s just the right size so that I can wear it alone or with a sweater underneath. With that, there isn’t much socal can toss at me that’ll make me uncomfortable.

I want my car!

I dropped it off at my mechanic’s on Monday. Timing chain was making a noise and the rack and pinion needed to be replaced. A couple other things in there as well. Long story short, it wasn’t a one day job. It was supposed to have been done yesterday, but alas, it was not to be. Damn. I’m hoping I can pick it up today and that nothing hopelessly scary happened. There are still a bunch of things I want to do, but nothing even remotely extensive. I just want to have fun.

Later today, I have to pick up my brother. After that, well, I don’t know. I want to do something today. Go somewhere. Maybe I’ll go to Sam’s. Maybe Jerome picked up that part for me and we’ll hang out tonight. Who knows?

Nothing really. Just bored. I think there was something that Ash and I went to that I kinda wanted to recap. Ah! Thanks Ash! We went to a Brazilian restaurant… well, just because. It was awesome though. When I was younger, my family would go to the Puente Hills mall a lot. There was a Brazilian restaurant there too, but this was also when I was doing DDR a lot and there was a nearby arcade. Well, it’s still there, but it sucks now. It’s always been overpriced, but now no one goes there. Anyway, because of that, that time Ashley took me out made it the first time I was at a Brazilian restaurant.

That place was awesome. If you’ve never been, Brazilian restaurants are all you can eat, but not in a traditional sense. In a traditional buffet, the food’s set out and you get up to fill your plate as needed. In a Brazilian restaurant, the food is brought to you. It isn’t brought to you on plates or platters though. Instead, it’s brought on swords. Well, more or less. Though not literal swords, it’s a long skewer with a handle at the end. It’s almost exclusively meats brought to the table. Eat your fill. It’s a change of pace for me, since I usually have some form of filler with my meats. Rice or potatoes perhaps. Eating just meat is weird. And good. There’s lots of it to be had. Ash and I had a good time.

Um… I’ve been hooked on a game called Drift City. Salt (Greg) introduced me to it. It wasn’t difficult to get my attention. When I asked him what it was, he said it was a Racing MMO. Sold! The game’s still in beta testing, but it’s pretty far along, well enough to enjoy it. There’s more than enough racing to be had, but there’s also the traditional elements of MMOs, such as buying and selling, as well as partying and forming/joining crews.

This weekend was pretty fun. Finally went down to see Ash. It’d been a while, or at the very least, felt like it. We worked the OCUBS show (burlesque ftw!) Friday and Saturday night. The show’s pretty fun, even if there are only five girls for this show. Might be a little different this weekend. Suzy (Ruby Roulette) was away and missed the first week, but she might make an appearance for the second week. Darcy (Mona Lott) has been sick and also missed the show. But Christina (Bella Nottee), Melanie (Kate Fox), Tiffany (Lacy Bottom), Lauren (Billie Jean), and Shaunee (Veronica Vixx) are in the show. There are some really good numbers in here, there always are.

There’s another show coming up in December. It’s their One Year Anniversary. Don’t ask me why I capitalized that. But they’re doing a Best Of ensemble. I have some favorites… lemme see if I can remember them. For Melanie, I like her Jedi number. For Christina, it’s definitely her Roxanne number. I was going to go through all of them, but I’m a little tired. Next!

Ah cars. Lovely. And weird. Not too fond of the E30, I traded it for a 240SX. This was a 89 coupe with a CA18DET motor swap. Manual of course. Funny though, because I didn’t really like it. Well, part of that might have a lot to do with the intercooler piping working its way loose and leaving Sam and I stranded for a while. Worked it out after a while and it works rather well now. But anyway I found a really good deal on another 240. 92 Auto, stock motor. For some reason, I grew really attached to it… for the few miles it worked. I drove it from Panorama City to Sam’s place. As I went to leave, we found that the car wouldn’t start. We’re still trying to figure out why. It’s still a good car, just one that won’t start. Weird.

It’s usually the other way around. People have the stock auto that works and try like hell to get the boosted manual to work. They also like the other one better. I’ve got it all backwards. Oh well.

And I find myself here at 2:30 am. I should really post this, but instead I’m going to sleep. I’ll get to it later.

I can’t find my freaking hat. I love that hat. It’s my Yukikaze hat. Ryan gave that to me more than a few years ago. It just happens to fit me perfectly. But yea, I lost that and my iPod at the same time. Found the iPod! That’s good news, but I still haven’t found my hat. Right now I’m wearing my CYA hat. It’s not like I don’t have enough hats, I just don’t have enough hats that I like. I couldn’t find my second place though. My Starbucks hat. Sad.

Made me late for class too. Doesn’t seem too bad though. I seemed to have been forgiven by getting a good grade. Well, I got two A’s (there are two grades for each paper apparently). I should be heading to class, but I’m lazy and I want to watch Top Gear. Yay!

Anyway, it feels like I should be doing something. Ah well, bugger that. Bookstore doesn’t have the book I need, so whatever.

Yay! Flipping yay! Sam’s so completely awesome. Guess what? The 240 hatch works now. Among things we changed out were the fuel filter, cap and rotor, and spark plugs. The biggest thing we replaced was the ECU. Think of it as the motherboard of the car. Or if you’re both car and computer illiterate, I hope you marry someone rich. The previous one had not only been replaced, but badly repaired as well. But the biggest problem after replacing the ECU was timing. Long story short, it took a while.

Car’s fine. Stock on stock. The rims are garbage and need to go. The radio isn’t there and needs to be put in. And it probably needs a tune up. After that, it’s ready to go. Yay!

Today I’m going to do a lot of that stuff. Going to the DMV to register the car in my name. Then I have to go to my insurance place and get this car under the policy. That lady’s going to be pissed. It seems like I go in there every two months or so with another car. She can’t be happy about that. I’ll also have to get the car smogged, I think.

All done! I think. Mostly. Car’s smogged and registered. For now, all it needs is the audio put in. So BORED! I have the head unit, amp, and sub put in the car… they’re just not attached to anything. But they’re in there! I’m one step closer.

I love writing my journal. In this class, I think I’ve been able to base a lot of my work on stuff that is or was supposed to be here. There’s a lot of work in here and it’s not like it took a bunch of effort. I love having other people read it too. It’s like being published, but without the effort.

This isn’t really a journal. Or maybe it is. But it could really be short-term memoirs. Or then again, maybe not. I take a lot of recent, modern events and use them as a standard against which I can gauge and reflect of events of the past. This journal is only… three to five years old. Seems like a long time, but I could have been writing it for a much longer time.

You may not know it, but you’ve probably done a lot of things that slip past you. A lot of people think that their lives are boring, but damn. Write about it real quick then think about it. Just step back. Hell, if you’ve only written a paragraph about an event, you can look at it and add things that interest you.

Anyway, I’m in a boba café with Ashley waiting for my car. Getting some basic stuff done, something you should always do when buying a used car. Now where to find someone to hook up the audio…?

Love you.

<3

I think I’m coming down with the flu. Sudden onset of headaches, body aches, decreased appetite, other stuff. Long story short, I’m not feeling well.

Cars! I was trying to keep this from Ashley, but it’ll be kinda difficult since she’s one of the few readers of my journal and most likely my most ardent. If I’m wrong, I’ll be surprised… and a little creeped out.

I’m trying to decide what my next car will be. I won’t be keeping the BMW. It’s just not a right fit for me. I’m between two cars. There’s an RX7 and a 240. The 7 needs paint and some body work. The 240 has a CA18DET swap. Not the popular SR20 or RB series swaps, but still much better than the stock KA series, which is a crap truck engine.

It looks as if I’ll be getting the 240 though. No one seems to want to buy the BMW, which is pretty essential to me buying the 7. I love the 7, but the 240’s got rear seats. But the 7 has A/C! Damn… Oh well. Maybe I’ll sell the 240.

I think I’m going to write a story about what happens to a character in the space of a second. A bullet is on its way, and enters, a person and it’s going to be how that person came to that situation and what is happening in real time. Just something I thought of while writing this. Yea, some random class assignment.

Hm… I want a 7 with back seats. Well, they make them, but you’d be hard pressed to fit small children in there, much less adults. Such a great car though. Oh well.

In that case, onto the things the 240 is going to need. Maybe seats, at least one. The driver’s seat is a bit worn and sports a seat cover over it. Might need a head unit. I have one, but it needs to be hooked up. It has a separate 6 CD changer with a removable face plate. Well, whatever. It’ll need speakers and I need to hook up that sub I have lying around.

Well at least I have a freaking awesome cupholder/cell phone holder. Love that thing.

Yea, I think I’ll keep it mostly as is. Oh wait! Sweet deal! It’s coming up on winter and I don’t need a/c for a few months. And wait again, I think I might need to get going. Dammit…

I guess I’ll keep talking about cars. I’d talk about girls more, but a majority of this journal is a love song to Ashley or bitching about how most other girls are so very frustrating and confusing. There’s next to nothing to complain about when it comes to Ashley. If anything, she loves hearing my voice even when she’s asleep, which I’m guilty of myself, but it leaves the other party out. It’s best when we’re both sleeping, if only that were always the case.

Man I love cars. I don’t really know what it is. They’re cool, they appeal to my taste. How things work, how they work together. There are endless things to fuss about, infinite tastes to cater to. How a car moves me. These things make cars really appealing.

For some people it’s a certain way an instrument sounds, for others it’s the way an author uses words. For me, it’s the way a seat holds me, the way the steering wheel feels and reflects the road, the way you move the car, the way it moves you, how the tires grip, how the tires slip.

It’s something about the relationship between the car and the driver. If you’re good enough, the car becomes an extension of you. You want it to do something and it happens. But it’s a two way street. As you move the car, it tells you certain things. What the road is like, how much grip you have left, how hard the engine is working. You listen, feel, react.

If you haven’t noticed, the other thing I really like are people. The relationships between people are different from the one between drivers and cars, but the fact that they’re both relationships remains.

I’ll update something later. Or won’t. Whichever. Love you.

<3

Well, that was cool. I'm sitting next to a garage right now. I'm getting my Civic's smog check. Traded out the Miata for it. It's a EG hatch back in red. Mods include Tokico shocks and springs, APEXI full catback, and clear/red taillights. It had a Mugen body kit, which looked great on it, but sat about half an inch off the floor. It goes without saying that it's a pain in the ass to drive around, so I took it off.

Broke it in over the past few days. Went to Ashley's over the weekend. Spent time with her and managed to catch Resident Evil 3: Extinction with Caitlin and Crono, which by the way kicked LOADS of ass... sideways... twice.

On Sunday I headed north. Jerome has always headed out to me, so I figured I'd pick him up for a change. He lives in Torrance, not that far from LA. After picking him up and grabbing a drink from the local Howe's market (Tab... which I would later find sucks much ass), we headed to the LA Convention Center. The LACC will be home to Anime Expo in 2008, something I, and very many others, are not happy about. Attending a day time convention is all well and good, but many of AX's events last well into the night and even early hours of the morning, something which may be dangerous considering the area.

That being said, Adult Con was during the day. I wanted to go because... well, out of curiosity really. After a long line for parking, we got our wristbands. And had to go back to the car. Despite leaving my (big) knife in the car, the security guards for the con said that my tiny Swiss Army Knife (a glorified toothpick) couldn't be allowed in. That being said, we marched back to the car, not exactly far away, and deposited it. Take two! The con was very small. Not exactly AX. But I think we got free passes to just about every club in LA. Cool.

There wasn't a whole lot to see. Lots of scary looking girls. Lots of the girls were out of shape (not "just a bit off supermodel", I mean really out of shape) and many were simply ugly. But I guess in that industry, there isn't exactly a high bar. But onto the highlights.

Not everyone was ugly. A handful were good, two of which stood out. The first was Sophie Dee. Hell ya I said Dee. It was really cool that one of the two best looking girls had my last name. Google her if you want some pictures, both me and Jerome failed to bring a camera. Long story short, black hair, blue eyes, some kind of European accent. And a rocking ass. Sir Mix A Lot, a la Baby Got Back, would have been proud. Not busty though. Good size, but nothing outrageous that the industry is so notorious for.

The other girl was Sinn Sage. Another brunette, rocking ass, real breasts. Oooh! This one wore glasses! Hot! Plus it seemed that her forte was um... other girls. Nice.She was giving lap dances for $10. I put up for one and wow. I asked her to leave the glasses on while she danced and she gladly agreed. Yummy. I just really liked this one because at one point she went around me and as she did, her tummy caught my head and she cracked my neck. Mmm. It was probably an accident, but it felt great.

I kinda noticed a pattern while I was there. I fancied sexy brunette girls with real breasts and a healthy ass. They also happened to be short. Well, I guess that's hardly surprising, considering who I fancy the most.

There are a bunch of journal entries on my laptop and archives that I haven't posted. There are a bunch of reasons I won't post an entry, such as too much time passing, but the most ironic one is that I don't want people to miss it. Posting multiple entries usually means people skip one or another.

I've tried to remedy this in a variety of ways, such as posting one a day or posting in multiple parts, but in a stroke of brilliance (well not really, but as long as I've said it, why not?), I've come up with another way. Check it out. LJ has lj-cuts, and that's the way I'm going.

( Something with baseball and pictures )

( Something to keep me from sleeping )

( Something about my Miata )

( Something about nothing )

Yea, that might take a while to get through. I'm pretty sure those weren't posted, but that's nowhere near all of them. But hey, let's get on with this entry.

Music. If you haven't noticed yet, I don't talk about a great many things... or maybe I do. Depends on who's reading. Anyway, this is where I talk about music.

I just reformatted my computer. A pretty vicious bout of spy/malware pwned my computer. So I backed up some stuff and formatted it. Not a whole lot on there, but it still took me the better half of FUCK I forgot my work (read: dirty) clothes at home. Dammit, now I have to drop by home before going to Sam's place. Where was I? Oh yea, it took me probably over eight hours to reformat this computer, backing up, reloading, redownloading, and customizing. Pain in the ass.

Anyway, it kinda gave me he chance to go back through my music. I've queued up a random bunch of music. It looks like my fancy is gravitating towards upbeat, kick ass music right now.

From Paramore, Misery Business (something I REALLY recommend you check out, the entire album, Riot, is great).
From E.S. Posthumus, Pompeii.
From the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, God Knows.
From Papa Roach, No More Secrets.
From Linkin Park, What I've Done.
From the 300 Soundtrack, The Hot Gates.
From Evanescence, My Last Breath.
From Pirates of the Caribbean 3, I Don't Think Now is the Best Time.
And from Fallout Boy, Thnks Fr Th Mmrs.

It's like a hot and spicy sample appetizer special. And if you like anything I do, checking these out wouldn't be a bad idea.

Oooh. Let's get to cars! Yea...

My Miata hasn't really been fiddled with in a while. But hey, I worked on what counts. The Miata has a new shift boot. Cost about $20. It's some cheap shit autozone one with red stiching. Whatever though, it works. It's actually just what I was looking for. The bottom of it is elastic and wraps around the shift base perfectly, keeping out most of the hot air, the thing that was heating up my cup holders. My cupholders actually work now! Sweet deal.

I still need to go to the junkyard and pick up some stuff. I need the inner shift boots (the rubber ones that go around the actual shifter), I need some insulation that I'm just going to stuff in there to help keep out that heat, I need some random nuts and bolts too. There's an annoying rattle from a heatshield that no one's been able to find yet which is going to die today when I meet up with Sam. Oh, and I need to replace the headunit. The cassette thingy isn't working, so I figure it's about time.

I need another car. Well, I still have that BMW, but I'm too lazy to catch up on the paperwork necessary to drive that car. It's just handy having two cars. In case something happens, if a friend needs a loaner, there's just a lot of uses. Or, for example, if I want to work on one and it'll take more than a day. Like now. I want to redo the paint on the Miata. Having another car would be handy.

I think I'll keep it flat black, but I'll do a better job of it. If you haven't seen it yet, there's also a Autobot emblem on the driver's side quarterpanel, near the door. I was bored. Doesn't look cool though. Unlike the Yukikaze one I did on the RX7's hood, this one was sanded down to bare steel, not aluminum. It oxidizes. Lame. I think I'm going to paint it a uniform flat black with a shiny silver racing stripe... maybe two. Or maybe chevrons on the side. I don't know, but damn this car's got character.

Since the last time I posted a swag section, I've gotten some random items. There's an article of clothing I have yet to wear. Waiting for the weekend. Mmm, got some new shoes too. They're Adidas... something or other. They're awesome running shoes that're mostly mesh. Yay for keeping my feet cool. I'm not sure if I got anything else...

Oh hey, I didn't talk about Shoot Em Up yet. Holy FUCK that movie was COMPLETELY awesome. If you love action scenes and can appreciate a movie for what it's supposed to be (it's a straight action film, like Live Free Die Hard), you'll love this movie. Light on plot with almost nonstop shooting. Whack shit awesome choreography.

I wanna buy one of the new iPods. I can't make up my mind though. The price, when all's said and done, isn't really that different. Anywhere from $80-250. For a one-time expenditure, it's not really significant. The thing is, which do I want? The new iPod Shuffle is about the size of a large postage stamp. Holds about a gig and weighs next to nothing. Step up and you get the iPod Nano. I already have one, but it seems that the battery's going out. Could just be me though. Anyway, it's shorter, but a little wider than the one I have (the first generation Nano). Imagine a two inch screen and a scroll wheel underneath that and there isn't much else. Oh, but the selling point of this one (for me) is that as tiny as it is, it plays videos. Capacity choices are 4 and 8 gigs.

Above that is the iPod Classic. A noticeable bigger than the Nano, it boasts capacities of like... 20 and 40? Something like that. For $50 bucks more than the higher end Nano, it's a pretty big difference. Consider this. Despite my near constant computer dependency, I've almost never had more than 40 gigs to work with. The bulk of the past few years I've been on one laptop or another with hard drives ranging from 30-40 gigs each.

At the top of the range for iPods is the iPod Touch. Near as makes no difference, it's a iPhone without the phone. Oh, and it's half as thin to boot. Not bad. But I'd never get one. Impractical for my uses. Nifty gadget though.

I also want to get a new computer. My laptop plays my games well enough, but only just. It overheats after a while, bringing my lackluster 60 or so fps down to... 4. Yes. Four. Plus, it's nice having a proper screen every now and again. This one's about 12 inches I think. It's ok for a laptop, certainly one of this size, but I'd like one roughly twice as big. That'd be cool.

Till next time...

<3

I want everyone and their mom to know that it’s hot today. Really… REALLY hot. Excessively hot. Being in a mall right now, and probably until my battery gets low, helps.

Recap(s) in the near future will cover Universal Studios, theatre shows, and a Dodger game.

So, let’s jump straight into cars. I’ve owned a bunch of cars and driven even more. Cars I’ve owned include a Mitsubishi Lancer (120 hp FWD sedan), Mazda RX-7 FC (160 hp RWD hatchback), Mazda MX-5 Miata (130 hp RWD convertible), and a BMW 328i E30 (200 hp RWD coupe).

I’ve always been of the opinion that a brand new car wasn’t worth it. We’ll work with a relatively consistent amount of money here. 15-25k gets you a cheap car (Mitsubishi Lancer, Nissan Sentra, Honda Civic) these days and you have to put 5-10k (Turbo and suspension modifications to start) more into it to extract any real performance. Or you can put ALL that money straight into a BETTER new car, spending anywhere from 25-40k (VW GTI, Evolution, WRX, S2000, 350Z, G35). However, expect to pay out the ass for insurance and cost of maintenance, not to mention you’ve blown your wad on the car and have no way to customize it. The new Scion TC’s brake rotors are near $300 a piece, which you have to get from the dealer since there isn’t an aftermarket alternative yet. Just a heads up.

Now put that money into an older car. 15-25k for a car that’s 5-10 years old will get you a much better range of cars. And if you spend your bulk of money straight on to a stock car, you’ll probably get something nice like a BMW M3, RX-7 FD, or Toyota Supra. You’ll still find yourself paying high insurance and cost of maintenance. And if later you want to modify your car, ouch.

My philosophy is spending little for the actual car, but then tailoring it to your liking. This isn’t for everyone, but it does have some appeal, or at least, I would like to think it does. Older cars have lower insurance premiums and are much easier to own outright, opening the option of liability only. A risk to be sure, but at least it’s an option. But spending that same 15-25k will now get you much more for your money.

In addition to the basic bolt-ons (intake, headers, exhaust, suspension bars), you also can fully build the engine and suspension for much, much less. You also have a lot more money to customize your car further, with racing seats, steering wheels, rims, tires, ICE (In-Car-Entertainment), and body parts, all of which help you more than you’d realize and also costs a LOT more than you’d realize. Also, cars that old have proven themselves. They’ve been around. Which also means much more aftermarket support for much less.

Beyond the mere pragmatism, which can be argued back and forth, there’s something else. I love the older cars’ styling. Flip-lights especially exude a certain flair that newer cars lack. There’s a timeless elegance to the FCs, Miatas, Silvias, 86’s, and many other cars that doesn’t really go out of style. It’s… subtle. None of that outlandish, attention grabbing styling that corporate marketing has forced upon car design.

Let’s say you just want bling though. Well, the tasteful kind. My mom wants to buy a new car. For now, her Toyota Sequoia is satisfying her conflicting needs of a strutting, successful administrator and a mother of four who constantly needs to haul shit around. But she wants something that’ll look really nice in a parking lot during an off-site business meeting. Her attention immediately gravitated towards a new Mercedes, BMW, or Lexus. But I suggested something else to her.

Buy a new BMW. Or a new Mercedes. Or any new executive luxury car. Park it in that parking lot full of other executives and watch your car become lost in the swarm, a car with nothing to distinguish it from the next couple dozen down the line. In a few years, your car will have lost its new car feel as it pales in comparison to the NEW new cars. You’ll trade your car in, recouping nowhere near your expenses, and you know deep in your heart that you’ll have to do it again in a few years.

But what if something different made its way into that parking lot? A sleek 67 Mustang? An intimidating Dodge Challenger? A classic Chevy SS? Something that’s not already on its way out of style. Not only will you NOT be lost in a sea of letters and numbers marking one Merc from the other Bimmer from the other Jag, but you get to intimidate other executives. Luxury cars these days are silent runners, which will whimper and whine their way away from your deep, throaty car with its big, powerful engine. Perhaps a bright red, blue, or yellow with black racing stripes. Something with shiny, but not gaudy, chrome accents. Crystal clean, clear windows proudly showing off your sparkling interior instead of hiding bland luxury behind the executive shadows of deep, factory tint. How about a little character?

It’s later in the day from when I started. You should get moving yourself. And if possible, do it with some style.

<3