Newish Car

I bought my first used car tonight. Headed over to a pseudo sketchy car dealership handed them a decent sized check and drove away in a white, slightly scratched, 2000 Honda Civic.

I bought my first used car tonight. Headed over to a pseudo sketchy car dealership handed them a decent sized check and drove away in a white, slightly scratched, 2000 Honda Civic.

I've been looking for a couple of weeks since I totalled my car back in December. And I have to admit towards the end there I just wanted the whole ordeal to be over with. I was good I checked out the carfax and test drove the thing no black smoke anywhere, but I passed on the warranty, seems like a scam. Oh well it's shiny and gets me from point A to point B and that's basically what I want.

At least I don't have to drive around the Saturn anymore.

Shady dealings at MacWorld

After a couple of hours wandering the aisles of MacWorld I was tired and starving. So I headed out into the sunny (not quite warm but not that cold) streets of San Francisco and found the Cravery, which makes very tasty hand held pot pies. I took my pastry to a nearby bench and went to town on that thing.

When I could think of other things than food I saw across the street what appeared to be a homeless man that was "helping" people park their cars. And by helping I mean waving them into large obvious spots and then standing next to the back of the car behind the spot so they could tell how big the spot was. After all that hard work he expected payment.

If I had driven I would have been pissed. But I guess if people are willing to pay for such an obvious scam more power to the parking guy. And since I have been hearing more about such incidents people must be paying them or else it wouldn't have caught on. Which in my opinion sets a very bad precedent. What if you don't pay and the homeless guy gets angry and then doesn't something damaging or disgusting to your car?

This is a learned behavior, so those of you that feel the need to pay for some useless help grow a pair and say no.

A sad sad day

My favorite zoo animal has passed away, and no I don't mean Tatiana the blood thirsty tiger. No, Gemina the crooked necked giraffe at the Santa Barbara zoo has passed away at the ripe old age of 21.

I love giraffes. In college a friend said I looked like one and it kind of stuck. Although I often wish I looked like a prettier animal, you are what you are. But anyways it was always fun to go to the zoo and check out this crazy giraffe. She had at least two kids that I know of and her neck was the weirdest thing.

So here's to you Gemina, no longer will we hear shocked squeals from little kids, see old women pointing or hear docents explain for the twentieth time that hour that no Gemina was not in pain and that this is the first reported case in almost a hundred years of a crooked necked giraffe, the last one being in London. You will be missed.

Coffee accessories rock

Coming back from the bars last night we started discussing the ins and outs of Diet Coke and Mentos. When one of the guys mentions the amazingness of non-dairy creamer and fire. Now I'm always a fan of anything having to do with fire so on our way home we stopped by the 24 hour Safeway and bought some non-dairy creamer.

In front of our apartment at about 1:30 am (drenched from earlier rain) we stood in a little circle of five people. Then, each of us holding a handful of the nd creamer, one guy holds a lighter and sprinkles the nd creamer on the flame until it catches, when it does everyone else throws their creamer up into the flame creating a damn big fire ball.

It was glorious.

We did it quite a few times, and every time the flame got bigger and bigger. It was great and I plan on pulling this out next time I go camping. I mean who needs eyebrows anyways?

Damn you Fry's!!

I expect it at some places, mainly the autoshop or bar but not at Fry's, that bastion of capitalist greed.

So there I was was, A was looking for an external hard drive and we were in the computer section. I thought I would see if they had the Asus Eee PC there (because they are freaking cute and I totally want one). I didn't see one but I figured I would ask the helper man because, well hell, they're supposed to help you.

So I ask him if they have the Asus and he asks if I mean Acer, "No, it's the Asus Eee PC its really small about 8 inches."

"Are you sure they make computers? Asus makes motherboards" (a little condescending I might add)

A says yes they make a small computer and the guy totally turns away from me (the person he was supposed to be helping) and starts talking to A and totally believing everything he says about this ultra small linux computer, everything I had already told him and yet I got a condescending ass and A gets a friendly sales person. A, of course, is trying not to laugh because I was getting pissed and he finds just about everything funny. Stupid helper jerk isn't even up on new computers.

We walk away and go look for something else. While both of us are looking at hard drives another salesman comes up to us and says, "Excuse me sir can I help you find anything?"

Little bastard.

Happy New Year! Saturns suck

Ok I don't know if all Saturns suck* but the one that I have been driving for the past week does. A little background:

On Dec 18 I crashed my car into the center divider, that Friday they called me and told me that it was totalled. On Tuesday I borrowed my Dad's Saturn Sky. Now my dad is always trying to get me to like his car, but I've never been a fan. So when I crashed my car I think he was excited that I would finally drive his little car around (I try to take public transport now as much as possible), and realize just how wonderful it truly is.

But sadly there is a slight difference between my father and I when choosing vehicles, he chooses them for how they look and I choose them for how fun they are to drive (ok looks help too but that isn't the deciding factor). But as he was nice enough to let me borrow the car after I had just totalled one I was trying to be a little nicer about my rating but it just wasn't to be.

First off you basically lay down to drive, no matter how I messed with the seat I couldn't fix it. The gages are set quite far in and at some angles you actually can't see the gas gage. The shifter is nice, very easy but not too easy, all the gears are easy to find. First and second gear have a decent amount of power, third is ok but fourth and fifth are completely gutless, stomp on that accelerator all you want there is, sadly, no chance of whiplash. The driving is also too smooth you can't really feel the road. There is a huge blind spot on the drivers side and the radio is pathetic. Oh and it's a convertible, I hate convertibles.

So basically this is a car that tries to look sporty but my old Honda was more fun to drive. I wish my insurance would hurry up so I could get a new car. And by new car I mean a 2000 Honda with hopefully less than 2000 miles on it.


*there is a good chance that I just miss my car and therefore feel that all cars that aren't my cute little mini that gave up its life for me blow.