July 25, 2018

Gambler 500

My first Gambler 500 experience was an absolute blast. I heard it best described as a “Burning Man for Redneck, Car Nerds”. Even though Butterface, my team’s 1988 Mercedes 190E, didn’t even make it to the campsite in Chemult, Oregon, I still had a great weekend and the smiles per mile factor was through the roof. So many hilarious cars, questionable modifications, and goofy people having a good ol’ time out in the blazing hot desert.

September 7, 2016

Missing Emojis

Here’s an ongoing list of emojis that I wish were part of the Unicode standard zombie or walking dead blushing face that isn’t a smile with a slight blush hug that doesn’t look like two high-fives

June 19, 2016

Perfectly Normal Cars

I was driving to work a while back and came across three of what I think are the best looking “normal” cars (read: normal cars as not sports cars) in one 15 minute drive… Ford Fusion (Americas Gen2: 2013-2015…): Aston Martin grille Mazda 6 (Gen1: 2004-2008, Gen3: 2011-2015…): Dodge Dart (2012-2015…): I’ve actually driven a Dodge Dart, not bad at all for a normal economy car. Would have been more fun in manual, the auto had a bit of a mind of its own…

January 28, 2016

Sangean WR-22

Wow it has been a long time since I’ve posted on here, oops! Anyway, today I’m going to give my initial impressions of my new Sangean WR-22 bluetooth FM radio / alarm clock. I purchased it so that I could be awoken to music in the morning (or news, depending) rather than the super obnoxious “beep beep” of my old buzzer-alarm clock. Much more pleasant to wake up to! Pros:

September 23, 2015

Best IPAs Across the 50 States

I got the idea to start this list from a Scitimes article, however I didn’t agree with a lot of the IPAs they chose (or that the rankings on sites such as BeerAdvocate chose), so here’s mine. This will be a continuously updated list as I travel to more states and try more IPAs across the country. Alabama: Good People Hitchhiker IPA Alaska: Alaskan White IPA Arizona Arkansas California: Russian River Brewing Pliny the Elder

June 19, 2015

Spotify Irritations

To continue today’s theme of bitching about perfectly good things, I turn my attention to Spotify… why can’t I organize playlists? why can’t I at least view them in alphabetical order? I shouldn’t have to save an album to download it (cache it) to my mobile phone where did the queue and play history go? Those were useful, bring them back it would be especially cool if I could change the content of the right “social” panel to display the queue and play history… why can’t I collapse sections of the left panel (mainly local media…)?

June 19, 2015

VW Golf R SportWagen

While yes, the new VW Golf R SportWagen answers many car enthusiasts’ prayers for a rapid hot estate car that doesn’t blow the bank, it’s not quite perfect, for two reasons. It’s missing the most crucial ingredient: the VR6 sound track the quad exhaust tips The first one, sadly, won’t ever be “fixed” I’m sure, due to increased pressure to attain better MPGs and decrease the impact to the environment. However, I’m fed up of hot hatchbacks having dual catback exhaust with quad tips, plus it’s even more obscene on a 4-cylinder car.

December 30, 2013

Character

Firstly let me explain this, as a car person we often describe certain cars as having character, a personality, or some sort of x-factor which really sets it apart from others, as well as creates an emotional bond with its owner. This tie often isn’t entirely logical. For example, it is widely known that Alfa Romeo makes great, but generally unreliable sports cars. Somehow this trait, which would normally be seen as a negative, helps to define the character of the car, and in doing so creates a bond and a fanaticism amongst Alfa owners.

October 26, 2013

Best and Worst Album Beginnings

Best Black Label Society – Mafia “Fire It Up”: really cool guitar at the start, slow fade in, riffs, winning. That is all. Tool – 10,000 Days “Vicarious”, probably the best known Tool song, and also one of their best, is a really good song to start an album. It starts slow, builds, has a monster drop, and powers through all the way into the rock greatness. Plus, the lyrics are entertaining to think about, a interesting take on humanity: “Vicariously I, live while the whole world dies.