Last night, I rushed home to meet up with ifuwereafrog for dinner, but when I went to my car to go pick her up, I noticed that the driver's side door was not fully closed. My initial thought was that I didn't close it properly when I last drove, but I realized that all my belongings in the car had been rifled through. Urgently needing to meet up with Erin (and having a dead battery from the dome-light), I locked up the car and decided to go over it today.

Around lunchtime today, I called up AAA to get a battery boost, and when they arrived, took a quick inventory of things that I should expect to find in my car, but are not in there:

• A ziplock bag of quarters amounting to about ten dollars in the change cup
• Other change in the driver's side hand-hold.
• My portable air-compressor for use refilling tires when they go flat.
• An emergency car kit including various tools and a set of jumper cables.
• An FM Transmitter for portable music players (and included cable) which could also play mp3s off of USB drives.
• A CD case full of CD-Rs burned with music.
• Who knows what else?

Silver linings: The thieves didn't break a window or anything to get in, so no damage, and they didn't take the CDs located on the visor which include actual purchased-from-store CDs.

Still, getting burgled sucks the bag.

Apparently two separate studies have found a correlation between racing video game play and increased risk-taking on meatspace roads.

Despite most gamers' insistence that gaming does not affect real-life behavior, anyone who's gotten on the road after playing Rush 2049 or Burnout knows the little, evil robot usses that pop onto the shoulder and insist on taking shortcuts or trying to get more boost by running your fellow commuters off the road.

You could have at least fessed up. I would have been far more understanding about it than I was this morning when I discovered the finger-smudged dent in driver's side rear door.

Unless you live in a location where you have a greater-than-50% chance of your car getting stolen, obliviously leaving your car alarm on to bleat its whiny, incessant klaxon every few minutes is just a really, really great way of invoking the desire to inflict grievous bodily harm on your car from your neighbors.

And if you live in a gated community, then that grievous bodily harm should be directed upon you.

Sunday afternoon, I walked back to my car to find that pieces were missing. Three pieces of plastic compose the lower grill on the front of the Scion xB, and a brief discussion with my dealer told me that the two end pieces have a tendency to fall out. I had parked in a pay lot when meeting some friends in Decatur, close to two other xBs, so I suspect that someone who had their grill pieces fall out just decided to help themselves to mine. I hit the parts department yesterday and the replacements are cost me about 75 dollars.

And so I curse the thieves to the Hell of Being Cut To Pieces. Pigfuckers.

I came home last night to Iggy from Guinness and Poker putting on his very own showing of Animals Close-Up with a Wide Angle Lens. Super Cuute!

And, finally from countessmary, ( my comment statistics... )

About two years ago, I had BMW send me the BMW Films on DVD--the series of short film/commercials starring Clive Owen as "The Driver," a sort of mercenary-behind-the-wheel-for-hire. The set includes shorts by Guy Ritchie, Wong Kar-Wai, John Frankenheimer, and John Woo, all about a different job for The Driver.

I mention this because it was in these films that I first saw the BMW Z4 Roadster. I've ridden in the earlier incarnation, and I always thought the styling of the Z3 left much to be desired. In my opinion the Z4 has a better look--more streamlined, less clumsy. So imagine some two years later that I finally see what's one of the neatest style choices on the Z4.

Pictured at the right, you can see the Z4's side marker. On just about every other car, the side marker is just a simple reflector lens, generally that safety yellow/orange color, stuck on the side of the car, blinking in unison with the turn signals. Most car manufacturers will try to make the side marker unobtrusive. The Z4, however, incorporates the side marker into the design of the car--surrounding the BMW emblem is a concave circle, and when the turn signal turns on, it backlights the emblem. Way cool.

So why did it take me two years to discover this? Why do all the "car people" I tell this to not already know about it? I guess average BMW drivers (in Atlanta, no less) tend to eschew the use of their turn signals...

After flipping me off not once, but twice some five hours ago after I had the audacity to honk at you for cutting me off, I'm still pissed off at you. If there's ever the off-chance that I run into your stupid slacker ass again, I do intend to beat the living shit out of you.

James, in need of an Anger Workbook.

Sure, there's all of about a screw's worth of damage, but, given that I've had thing for less than six months, I hope your blatant disregard for other people's property curses you with small sexual organs, protuberant nasal hairs, and hirsute daughters.

Fuck you very much,
That Yellow Bastard.

Based on four days worth of driving in Los Angeles traffic, the Dodge Magnum, despite the buzz in automotive news and reviews, is a crappy car.

Right now, it feels like it's about 50 degrees outside, with a non-insignificant wind chill that always seems to hover around my place (granted, to someone who lives further north than Atlanta, this is nothing, but it's a little more than chilly for someone who grew up in Miami). Since I've been sick for the past four days with a hollowed-out throat, I've pretty much watched all the TiVo I can stand.

And now I really, really want to wash my car.

Aside from getting a few cars for the buddies, I certainly wouldn't mind adding ( this ) to the Tardis.

Had the following IM exchange this morning:

[10:17] Cap'n Ken: Nice ride. I like the MIssissippi State colors
[10:17] thepeopleseason: Step off.
[10:17] tmhsiao: :)
[10:17] Cap'n Ken: :-)
[10:18] tmhsiao: Think of it this way, would you ever drive a Bright yellow and bright purple car?
[10:18] Cap'n Ken: I'd drive a yellow car with tasteful purple accents
[10:18] tmhsiao: lol
[10:19] tmhsiao: somehow, I don't ever see a car bright yellow with tasteful purple accents ever existing.
[10:19] tmhsiao: Now, I love the Gators, but honestly, Orange and Blue is a pretty distasteful color combination.
[10:21] Cap'n Ken: Especially on the people who tend to wear it
[10:21] Cap'n Ken: Not as bad as some orange, though
[10:21] tmhsiao: Just hanging around the tailgate field on game day will show you some pretty hideous people wearing orange and blue camo pants.
[10:21] tmhsiao: indeed.
[10:21] tmhsiao: at least it's not that pale crap orange...
[10:21] Cap'n Ken: and you're off base on the purple/gold car thing
[10:21] Cap'n Ken: http://p.vtourist.com/1176375.jpg
[10:21] tmhsiao: ROFL
...
[10:24] tmhsiao: I remember I had two pieces of clothing--an orange shirt, and a red&black sweater that people got on my case about the Tenn and UGA implications.
[10:24] tmhsiao: I stopped wearing the orange shirt.
...
[10:25] Cap'n Ken: yeah, you have to be careful about that ... although it's usually chicks who mistakenly wear other team colors
[10:25] tmhsiao: sheesh. It's just a sweater.
[10:25] tmhsiao: at least there's no danger of wearing yellow and purple.
[10:25] tmhsiao: although, I *am* yellow. so I just got to avoid purple.
[10:26] Cap'n Ken: good point
[10:26] Cap'n Ken: No luck coming up with the LSU tiger-striped Cadillac that's famous in Baton Rouge
[10:26] tmhsiao: http://www246.pair.com/autoybkh/albums/funnies_/FSU_car2_1.jpg
[10:28] Cap'n Ken: nice

So I got a Scion xB. Given that I'm about 6'0", I'm amazed that I still have about four to six inches between my head and the roof when I sit in the car. You could probably fit three people over six feet tall in the backseat with little to no discomfort.

Pics of the new Tardis car are here.

I had a very odd dream last night about visiting my brother. I rode a Harley to visit him, and he was a bit standoffish when I got there. He was living with two women--one was an interminably cute woman who was very sweet and friendly, and the other was my most recent object of affection/lust. He and the latter had a child, but they weren't together anymore. I left, and then, somehow, the Harley turned into a bicycle as I rode past my ex-girlfriend.

Go figure.

On monday, I asked y'all what you thought was the ugliest car on the road today. xopherg may have been prescient enough to come up with the following answer:

aha! trick question.

its the one being driven by you.

So I did buy a new car tonight, and while it was none of the ones specified in the answer to my query, some may very well award it the ugliest car on the road. Personally, I think it has some stylistic charm.

I'll leave you to guess what it is, with the following hint: my new car is not unlike the Tardis, in size, in shape, and in that the outside dimensions belie a cavernous inside.

What, in your opinion, is the ugliest car on the road today? Post your answer in the comments.

If you had to buy a car, and money was an object, what's the cheapest, coolest car you can think of?

Edit: Instead of 'cheapest,' think 'reasonably priced'...

The subject of this post contains the exact words of the woman who was writing up my dead car's paperwork at the collision place.

Joy.

The car is now in the hands of Atlanta Import Collision. I have a rental car reservation for pickup tomorrow. My back is inordinately sore.

In the copious time I've had to spend on the phone today (including a conference call I sat on for work), I've gotten a little better at the chip twirl and chip flip.

I suspect much of my commuting for the next week will be exclusively between work and home.

Sigh

They say things happen in threes.

In the past two weeks, I've read several accounts of people getting into various car accidents. One friend in Gainesville (Florida) got T-boned by a driver running a stop sign. Another got in a head-on collision with someone.

( If that's not an ominous start to a journal entry... )

ETA: ( In the silver lining department... )

When you're driving on an interstate-to-interstate on-ramp, and there's a moderately-sized upturned orange cone in the middle of the left lane, consider the following before making a complete and abrupt stop on the on-ramp:

1. You are driving a Mercedes Benz M Class SUV. Since it's on its side, the cone will likely pass right under your car.
2. There are a few large and heavy vehicles moving at a fast rate of speed behind you.
3. Whatever damage the soft plastic cone may cause to the undercarriage of your overpriced luxury SUV is in no way comparable to the damage it will receive if I plow my vehicle into its backside.
4. Next time, quit being a fucking assbag, don't speed up your car in some machismo-inspired act of roadhoggery, and let the person in the merge lane merge. Maybe next time you won't get caught by a stupid cone unawares, and nearly kill the three drivers behind you.

And to think, more than likely, if I hadn't avoided your stupid, big, silver ass, I would have been the one at fault.

An assortment of things that have, either peripherally or directly, made my life slightly less boring (in a good way or bad...) in the past few days.

That which I should not have picked up at Target for seventeen dollars:

Soul Calibur II for the Playstation2, which I played in Weapon Master mode until 12:30 AM last night, despite my intentions to go to the Independent and be social.

They who should suffer grievous bodily harm:

The people who stole Rob's chained-up 2001 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 9R at some point last night. They should have the skin flayed from their faces. Glow-stick sodomy is too good for them.

He who should have massive amounts of funding:

Rob del Bueno, bassist for Man or Astro-man?, who's trying to push biodiesel use in the Atlanta area and the Southeast through his site, Vegenergy.

He who must not be named:

Voldemort

She who should probably write something a little more substantial than "testing. testing..." since she went ahead and registered for an LJ:

genny0926

That which does not work:

Motorola's Mobile Power Tools, which have given me the capability to hook my new phone up to my computer and synchronize calendar and contacts, but which, for some inexplicable reason, will not upload my self-created MIDI file as a polyphonic ringtone. Damn you.

Fuck you and your damn windshield-cracking stones.

a.k.a. Screwed on the River

Warning: much bitching and moaning here follows...

In most variants of Hold 'em poker, the players receive some number of cards, and the dealer sets apart five cards as "the board." These are the community cards--they are revealed after set rounds of betting. Usually, in games such as Texas or Omaha Hold 'em, the dealer shows the first three cards after the players have placed bets based on their own hands--this is known as the "flop." Here follows a round of betting--often accompanied by groans or folds. The fourth card to be revealed is known as the "turn." Following yet another round of betting, the dealer then flips over the final card--the "river."

On Friday night, following our birthday dinner for sassica, flattop, and Thomas, and Robb, we went to play poker at Casa Ghetto. I was looking forward to the night, having been bereft of poker for the past few weeks. ( Once I sat down to play, however... )

With the night full of bad beats and lousy bluffs, I decided to devote Saturday to sulking. I spent a good portion (likely about 12 hours or so) watching TiVo, and another two or three hours reading comic books. I would get up only to eat a large bowl of raisin bran around noon when I awoke, and cook myself a can of beans and a Gardenburger Riblet around dinner time. It would be the only redeeming thing about the weekend.

On Sunday, we held ( the latest Eight Ball tournament at DuPree's... )

All told, I lost about $150 dollars this weekend. Thinking the worst was behind me, I decided to drive to Costco to get my tires balanced/rotated. On the thirty-or-so-minute drive up, I called flattop to see if he wanted to meet me there, since he needed new tires. He started driving up while I was about halfway there. Arriving around 4:30 PM or so, I spoke with the salesman, who informed me that the shop (which closes at 6:00 PM) wasn't taking any more work. They were short-staffed as it was, and couldn't fit my work in. After calling John and letting him know not to come up there, I spoke with a manager, who informed me that there was nothing he could do, despite their inability to take appointments. Sigh. Whatever.

Tired of getting dicked over at the last possible minute in everything I was doing that weekend, I went home and continued reading Life of Pi for Wednesday's meeting.

Hopefully, the pervasive shit of this weekend is now past...
Current Mood: irritated

As you know, I've been working on an email-to-LJ gateway where I can send in entries via email. Hopefully I can set things up so that I can compose messages offline and have them queued into the system accordingly.

Yesterday was a pretty cool day. The weather was really nice, and I had rousted tiiguy to get up and fix my car. So when he was all done, he picked me up from work, and we ate some scrumptious Indian food at Udipi.

The car's running far better than it was before...it seems positively spritely (if you can ever use such an adjective for an SUV) compared to the way it drove before. Taking a cue from Airplane, "sluggish...like a wet sponge" seems the best way to describe my Pathfinder prior to yesterday. Jason mentioned that my fuel filter was probably the dirtiest one he had ever seen. Jason, given that it should have been changed about 13K miles ago, do you think the exhaust manifold leak had something to do with that?

The previous version (yes, the one we just released) of our code is currently having issues, so I've got to get it working.
Current Mood: geeky