Long time no see, mein blog. Yeah, I know I said I was going to complete a blog special some time ago, but I realized that I had already done it... through facebook.

In fact, an interesting problem of sorts arose over the last couple of years. As facebook added more functionality, and because it gave me a direct link to the people who matter to me (my friends), I've found myself blogging less and less. Why would I want to come onto a separate website in order to post interesting things I see or photos I've taken, when I can do that in facebook and have my friends instantly see it?

Unless I have some deep revolving thoughts in my had that required more than 1,500 characters to write, I don't really have the impulse to blog much anymore. This is especially true as I've been busy as hell the last few years, and honestly, even if I were to finally finish school, I just don't see myself having the same amount of time to buttscratch. Certainly, instead of blogging, I could have viewed at least 20 websites for research by now, finished another game of starcraft, placed an order online for eBay/newegg/motorcycle stuff, had sex, had a 1/2 hour workout, planned a vacation, and whatnot. Time just isn't as cheap as it used to be. And I realize that at the ripe old age of 23 (I kid.. sort of), I get this feeling that I have to plan ahead and make as much use of my time while I am still young... because certainly, if/when I have kids, I will NEVER have the same freedom again. Even if the kids left, I'll just be an old guy. With that thought, I'm cramming as much as possible into my sched, so not much time to sit down for an hour or two to just blog.

But... I am not going to eliminate this blog. Even if no one were to read it anymore, it has documented some major ups and downs of my life. I have a couple of ideas for what to do with this blog. It could be an RSS-feed like series of posts where I post all my interesting links here instead of on facebook, and have facebook update automatically to link back to this website. It could be an occasional blog for when I truly do have something to rant about. Or it could be a monument of my 8 years and steep learning curve of life through high school and University.

We'll see.

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Part 2….
So apparently there was a tornado warning earlier today for the Windsor/Leamington area. In a way I sort of hope that this would cancel my midterm for tomorrow, but it’s not happening.

As an aside, the guy sitting beside me on the VIA train has an iPad… except that he had to put it on the table we’re all sitting at and attach a keyboard to it in order to stalk facebook. In which case I wonder- what the hell is the point of having it when a netbook or a laptop would have done the same thing? He pretty much destroyed the only point of having the thing (portability and “grab-ability”) by attaching it to a giant keyboard and sitting it on the table. Now he’s pulling out an iPhone (wtf?).

As a continuation of last post, I’ve also committed a lot of time to a couple of overdue projects, both to my CBR125R and to my CT70.
“Phase 1” of the CT70 project, which involves all engine work, is finally coming to a close. I got the entire top end of the bike off last year, and this year I finally ordered parts and put the engine more or less together again. There was a delay in my plans (I mean, besides school commitment, obviously), as I was missing a couple of bits and pieces that for some reason weren’t in my engine to begin with. I am starting to believe that the previous owner had already torn into the engine for a top-end refresh, but did a shitty job and that is why I am back at square one *shrug*. I did not quite have enough time to complete everything this weekend- all I have left to do is some last minute checks to make sure that everything will fit together without any problems (particularly the gaskets and the dowel pins), that the timing is correct, and to tighten the few remaining bolts. Shouldn’t take too long the next time I’m in town. I’m pretty nervous and excited about kick starting it up for the first time in a long time.


Remember this problem? No more. New cylinder, new piston, refreshed everything else.

My 125R has, up until very recently, been pretty much untouched in terms of modifications- the only allowance to mods I made was a set of frame sliders and HIDs, but that has changed lately with a flurry of mild mods. For one thing, I replaced the front and rear turn signals with smaller LED turn signals, at the same time changing the turn signal relay from an analog to digital device so that they blink properly. On Friday, I received an integrated taillight and Yoshimura rearsets in the mail. On the way is a banjo brake switch and a new set of Yoshimura brake levers. These are all small things (really cheap too), but they make the bike more visible to drivers, easier to ride, and look better.


Integrated Tail-light


Yoshimura rearsets. Waiting on a banjo brake switch before installing.

I have several other things coming down the pipeline. Next on the list is a modification to the rear fender to eliminate the enormous shovel on the back of my bike, and then I’m going to see if I can refine my HID setup so I can have dual hi/lo beams on both lights (the stock lights only light up either the left or right light depending on hi/lo beam). Eventually, I’m going to invest in a big bore kit (about $505), which should make freeway riding easy on this bike with the horsepower gains.

Once I finish everything on my 125R… I’m going to enjoy it for a bit, and what happens next will be a matter of chance I guess. On one hand, I could keep riding it indefinitely, at least until I finish school and think about something else. Or, I can move on to another bike. I was looking through Kijiji and while I sure as hell am not getting a Ninja 250R, I was thinking of getting a Suzuki SV650 or a Honda CB-1, something that is inexpensive but has historical greatness. The only issue with those bikes is the insurance. If I can get a decent insurance rate on either of those bikes, it’s likely that I’ll be selling the 125R to my girlfriend (Audrey is about to take her M2 course and will be needing a bike). The Honda CB-1 in particular is really attractive to me because 400ccs stands a great chance of being in a low displacement motorcycle insurance group. The bike itself is a naked-styling bike with no fairings, but the frame is handsome and the engine is an I4 from the CBR400R that fills up the entire space underneath the frame. It looks awesome! With a Givi airstars windscreen and a few mods, I can easily imagine touring with that thing across the country.

The last option is really iffy, and that is that I sell my bike and move to another country. Out of nowhere last week, Audrey told me that she was considering going to vet schools in the US, Scotland and the UK…and asked me whether I would go if she got accepted and had to move to another country. Of course I said yes! When she told me about her plans, I knew in her heart she was afraid of what I was going to say… but the reality is, I was pretty excited! Suddenly, the world seemed to open up.
At this point in my life,I might as well take in as much of the world as I can, while I can. I’m pretty mobile too… all my shit I own I can pretty much fit in 5 boxes. I don’t give a shit about my parents. And my friends have already moved on to their own next great thing. There’s nothing left for me here, except going to grad school and/or finding a job. So why not find a job and do something, somewhere else? Most importantly… I just can’t imagine doing anything without Audrey anymore.
Of course, we’ll have to see. This actually doesn’t throw a wrench in my future plans, but certainly it makes me more considerate of other long term commitments. Regardless of what happens, I am very excited.

~Eastside

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Is anyone still there?

Apologies for not getting back uh… at all to this blog. The excuses are the same, so is the situation: I’ve been busy. I am actually still working on the Shanghai blog- luckily, even though my short term memory has degraded a lot (I swear it’s because I haven’t been playing nearly enough Magic: The Gathering or any brain-game to keep myself sharp), I still have 600 photos to help me remember what I did and what sort of craziness happened. And to think- that 600 photos is what I’ve been left with after culling over 1,800 photos. Anyways, that should be up before next Monday (though clearly my timelines can’t be counted on). I also have a short video mix that I hope won’t bore people to death.

I’ve been afraid that I been once again afflicted with writer’s block, but now that I am actually typing, things are starting to pour out from my head again. However, like my short term memory, my grammar and spelling has gone down the drain so it’s hard for me to describe things at times. Please bear with me.

School is the same always. Busy, studying for midterms, doing labs and assignments, etc. The difference is that I’m finally nearing the end of my journey, and while that means that the actual school work has somewhat come down, I have new commitments. The biggy is the fact that I have joined the Formula SAE team for my capstone project for 4th year. Right now I’m on the B-spec team, that is, we are the usual stereotypical scraggly n00b engineers trying to get our shit together, learn things about and from the current team, and start laying the foundations for designing our own car for 2011. The goal for us isn’t to do a brand new car design from the ground up- we don’t have much time and money for that. Instead, we are going to improve all aspects of the 2010 design.

A bit of past history: The University of Windsor campaigned FSAE cars in the past, 2008 and below. However, there was no 2009 team, and by the time the current 2010 students were working on their cars, they no longer had any help from graduates, etc. and therefore had to build their car from scratch using whatever knowledge they can scrap up. Needless to say, it was a miracle they got their car even put together, especially since a few days before the big competition at FSAE Michigan, they had an engine fire. We of the B-Spec team are much more fortunate, since we have a lot of help at the moment from the current 2010 members.

But because of their lack of experience, the 2010 car, while having some good design elements, had a lot of crappy bits of engineering into it too. For one, the car is really damn heavy, at something like 530 pounds (for reference, Rennteam from University of Stuttgart Germany’s car weighed a paltry 420 lbs, though that was achieved mostly because of the fact that they had a carbon fiber monoque chassis), and some design elements were simply stupidly done. With our current limited budget for the 2011 team (the 2010 team kind of had it worse, since they had to crib money off the SAE Baja team), we can’t really do a clean sheet redesign, but we can improve the current car really significantly. It is possible to shave at least 80 lbs off the weight of the car and centralizing mass by refining each individual component of the car, we can refine the suspension design, the engine mounting points, the chassis design (in addition to losing weight, we need to increase torsional rigidity), the ergonomics, and other bits and pieces. The most important piece of info given to us by the current team is that we need to do lots of testing. This is pretty obvious- you want something to break in testing before the competition, so it doesn’t break during the competition. A well tested but simple car usually wins over a more well designed but untested car (the engine fire days from the competition sort of proved that). Especially because beyond the autocross and acceleration tests, the team has to compete in a big 4 hour endurance race.
The funniest experience from the team came about two weeks before reading week. As the B-Spec team gathered around the current 2010 car to observe and see where we can easily make changes, we noticed the SAE Baja team scrambling. Their car was in pieces, and they had to put everything together and test it to make sure it actually worked. We come back about a week later and learned that the team somehow managed to beat the odds, not only getting the car put together and the bugs worked out, but placing SECOND overall in a fairly major event, only beaten by Cornell University. I don’t even know how that’s possible. Our team leader came in the next day and declared the FSAE B-spec team disbanded and that we were all joining Baja. Not.

So anyways, I’m obviously hoping that our FSAE team will be able to greatly improve the current car and that we’ll be able to take a pretty high position in the events that we enter. It’s quite a cool capstone project to be taking part in, to be honest.


The crazy 2010 Baja Car


Last year’s Baja Car and our FSAE 2008 car, minus bodywork. Windsor has a proud tradition of excellence in the Baja field, though our FSAE team definitely needs to do better to crack the top 10. I could not get a picture of the 2010 car because it was currently being dyno tuned.

Anyways, besides my trip to Shanghai, I haven’t actually done much outside of, you know… school. This week is my reading week, and between Audrey and I, we’re still hard pressed for quality vacation time… and hence, no overnight trips anywhere this time. But it doesn’t mean we haven’t been doing shit.

When I came home from Windsor on Thursday night, almost the first thing I did was put together a new computer for Audrey, after her laptop died on her. She was able to install a new hard drive and format it all by herself, but we realized that something more robust (and less likely to overheat) was needed because she used her computer heavily, day and night. In other words- she needed a desktop. As for our budget? As with most things nowadays, I approached the whole thing with the mantra: You either go build/buy something cheap, or you go all out and get something expensive. Don't stick in the middle as you're just compromising yourself with something that in the end, isn't really cheap and isn't really a good performer. So I set a tight budget and decided on cheap but better quality stuff.

I looked at a few pre-built systems, but I realized quickly that they were complete crap. Either terrible specs, or else the quality was really iffy. So I decided to build my own. TigerDirect was probably the most obvious choice for parts, and I was actually looking at their barebones kits, but I’ve always either found that they didn’t have the parts I wanted, or else didn’t offer much in the way of a discount. In addition, the desktop needed a WiFi card (for obvious reasons), and a TV tuner and capture card. Finally, I settled on just buying parts separately. I got the following stuff:

AMD ADX440WFK32GI Athlon II X3 440 Triple Core Processor - 3.00GHz, Socket AM3, 1.5MB Cache

Sabrent SBT-TVFM PCI Capture Card - Video Capture, TV Tuner, DVR, FM Radio, Personal DVD/VCD, Remote Control

DiabloTek PSDA400 Power Supply - ATX, Dual 2x 80mm Fan, 24-Pin, SATA Ready

Thermaltake TR2-R1 / AMD Socket AM2/939/754 / Aluminum / 92mm Fan / CPU Cooler

Centon 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory

Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H Motherboard - AMD 785G, ATI Hybrid CrossFireX, PCIe 2.0, USB 2.0, RAID, HDMI, DVI, VGA

Gigabyte GZ-X4 ATX Mid Tower Case - No PSU, MicroATX, 2 x USB 2.0, 7x 3.5 Drive Bays, 4x 5.25 Drive Bays

Linksys WMP54G PCI Wireless Adapter - 54Mbps, 802.11g



The parts in question

I settled on these parts for a couple of reasons. The computer is going to be left on 24/7 (meaning it needs to be robust and power efficient, as well as quiet). Audrey doesn’t do much gaming, but will need to do lots of photo editing and HD video watching. She multitasks with several applications open and running at once. The CPU was important and needed as many cores as possible while being very cheap and power efficient, and the AMD Athlon X3 offered all that (like almost all of AMD’s processors, which makes it hard to recommend any Intel processors unless you REALLY need all that power in the i5 and i7 series). Since Audrey has to upload and process huge Nikon D300 files in Photoshop CS5, the 3 cores help speed up batch processing by quite a bit, as well as being power efficient when idling. It's pretty simple to overclock as well.

I elected to go with a separate case and power supply, because I realized after seeing those combo case/power sets that they were complete crap. The cases were flimsy, and the power supplies tended to blow up. As anybody who has ever had a smoking computer can attest, the power supply especially is critical because if it’s crap, it’ll destroy everything else in your computer. Why connect several hundred dollars worth of components onto one crappy piece? I decided to spend a bit more money and got a pretty good case (without any of the annoying blingy LEDs that can light up your room when you’re trying to sleep), with a reliable 400 watt power supply. It's still cheaper than the crazier high end cases, but the combo offered much better reliability and styling. The case came with a lot of front ports, tons of expansion bays (for future hard drives) and featured a big-ass 120mm fan in the back. I could have went with a bigger power supply but I’m not planning on putting a huge power sucking graphics card in the computer and wanted something efficient and stable.

The CPU fan had to be cheap, and it had to be quiet. I didn’t have much need for a big-ass fan like the Scythe Katana in my own desktop, since the AMD processor doesn’t really run that hot and we likely aren’t going to do more than mild overclocking.

Finally, for the centrepiece of the whole system, I got the Gigabyte AM2+ motherboard. Because I wasn’t planning on getting a separate graphics card (Audrey isn’t going to be doing heavy gaming…), but wanted something with HDMI output and can play 1080p videos and run windows 7 without any lag, this mobo was great because it was based on a ATI 4200HD chipset. It also featured two PCI slots, which although seemingly insignificant was a major draw because it allowed me to install both the TV Tuner and the WiFi without having to resort to external USB devices (one goal was to integrate as much crap into the desktop as possible for fewer cables and external ugliness). The ability to overclock quite easily if needed, 4 memory slots, 7.1 surround sound, and the numerous ports were all bonuses. And yeah, it looked pretty cool. The only other mobo that came close to the low price of this one was a Biostar motherboard, but that one was significantly lacking, with only one PCI port and limited expansion options.

With shipping and taxes, everything came out to $430. If I could have done it again, I would have bought another stick of memory and a smaller case (to make it slightly easier to travel with). To complete the whole thing, we decided to take apart her current 640gb external hard drive to use as the new hard drive (two partitions, one for OS and the other for files), and used the DVD drive from my own desktop that I never use. I also got Windows 7 Professional from my school website for free. The result was this:


Only thing left is to look for a wireless mouse and keyboard combo.

That's it for now.

~Eastside

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I won't have much time to update this blog, at least not for the next few weeks. In addition to having an exam on the 15th, I am also busy trying to get everything done for my remaining projects and to-do's(CT70 phase 1 and a whole lot of minor mods for the CBR125R, doing some stuff for my bicycle, fixing up my girlfriend's Corolla, etc), packing for our Shanghai trip, and appeasing my girlfriend while she's in the midst of exam week =D

About the Shanghai trip: I haven't done a trip documentation for a while, so let's try another one for this, shall we? We'll be bringing along a tiny (and rather crappy) Asus Netbook, and I'll do my best to provide a brief account of day to day activity, as well as photos and crap (culminating in a writeup at the end of it all).

~Eastside

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Sometime last riding season, a young man bought a CBR125R motorcycle, and all was well in the world. With a squeaky clean smile he rode that motorcycle.

With happiness filling his heart, he proceeded to modify his bike. Adding little bits here and there, customizing it so it more fully represented "him" as a rider. Finally, he was able to stand back a few feet from the bike, look, and say "Wow! What a nice bike!"

He went on the CBR125R.ca forums, where being bold and brash (okay, he might not have been but for the sake of this story...), he ignored advice on being inadequately protected. Namely, he lacked boots and pants, and rode around with jeans and sneakers. Seeing this, one super smart and extremely damn handsome moderator warned him about this especially since he was a new rider, but the moderator was told "I know what I'm doing". His new riding buddies also did the same thing.

Several days later, a horrible accident occurred. The young man hit the front of another car while pulling out of a gas station because he was dumb and didn't look before pulling out. His knees were smashed up, the entire front end of his bike was ruined, and he was shaken. His squeaky clean smile was soon replaced with a scarred helmet.

Going on the forums and recounting his experiences, he brushed off his sheepishness and exclaimed that he was thankful to god that he was still alive. Ironically, a few days after that his friend who also didn't wear proper protection, also fell.

Since that incident, the young man has been trying to pick up the pieces of his motorcycle. Since that incident, he has posted very little on the forums. Alas, even after a winter hibernation, the bike remains wonky and difficult to ride, like it has a scar that never properly healed. Sadly, the young man put the bike up for sale on kijiji, but he hoped he could at least get some of his money back.

He listed for $1,675. That'll sell for sure, since it was much lower than other listed bikes right?

He listed for $1,650. Surely someone will take it now?

He listed it for $1,350. Getting pretty desperate.

And all the while, the poor CBR125R sits there forlornly, damaged and unloved, smiling at the young man with a crooked grin while the young man stares back in sadness and embarrassment. How low can he keep going until the bike is sold? Would the young man have to scrap the bike entirely? Would someone rescue the motorcycle from the clutches of this n00b and restore it and modify it to glorious proportions?

Only time can tell. But in the meantime, the young man's dreams are haunted by the words of the forum moderator:

"I told you so".


(click on picture to view full ad).

Okay, so I actually didn't SAY IT OUT LOUD, but the facepalm-level sadness of this whole thing is a bit much. There's nothing to really learn from this story, except that I'm right (barely) most of the time =D

But seriously, anyone want a project/track bike?

~Eastside

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A mother sets the dinner table
Son crashes to the pavement, yeah
A father workin' just to make ends
We spend our lives to try and make sense, of it.

But I, I feel the love, I feel the power
It comes to me in the darkest hour
And I, I wanna feel it again...

In this dreamland the kids are alright,
And the sky is blue.
We all got wings,
And know how to fly
I'm headed to the moon...

The sun on my face,
My head in the clouds,
Time on my side,
My feet off the ground...
I'm not comin' down. Not comin' down.

The summer ends, the ocean dries up
A stranger dies and no one gives a fuck
I take a look over my shoulder
All my friends have gotten older, oh yeah, oh yeah

But I, I feel the love, I feel the power
It comes to me in the darkest hour
And I, I wanna feel it again...

In this dreamland the kids are alright,
And the sky is blue.
We all got wings,
And know how to fly
I'm headed to the moon...

The sun on my face,
My head in the clouds,
Time on my side,
My feet off the ground...

I'm not gonna
Change just to change,
Break just to break,
Blame just to blame...

My head in the clouds,
Feet off the ground,
I'm not comin' down...

In this dreamland the kids are alright
And the sky is blue.
We all got wings,
And know how to fly
I'm headed to the moon...

The sun on my face,
My head in the clouds,
Time on my side,
My feet off the ground...
I'm not comin' down.
I'm not comin' down.
I'm not comin' down.
I'm not comin' down.

Our Lady Peace

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Money is weird.

Think about it: When we were still primitive, we traded things with each other. An animal pelt for a knife, for example. This actually makes sense to me, since you are actually giving away something of value for something in return. It's the conservation laws of the universe at work, right, give something to get something?

Today, we have the concept of pieces of metal and sheets of thin fabric-paper that define "value". What we are giving up in return for these pieces of paper are things that we do at work, our productiveness. And it's our productiveness that generates these shiny tokens and pieces of paper that we can use to exchange for things of value. So how come people get different amounts of these things? You cannot be telling me that a businessman who spends the whole day ordering people around and going home early deserves more money than teachers and engineers who work overtime doing difficult tasks, yet it happens. Looking at these pieces of metal and paper themselves, they aren't worth anything by themselves. These things only have value because people, someone somewhere SAYS they have value, not because they are themselves valuable. It's fairly obvious, but the point was driven home to me when I was watching Zombieland and Tallahassee wiped his eyes with a wad of bills when he talked about his dead son- Everybody was dead, what use is money except for use as toilet paper? The same points were brought up in the (absolutely amazing) childhood story The Little Prince, where the Prince met this businessman on a small planet. Prince thought it was ludicrous that you have somebody keeping track of a certain amount of something (stars in the sky, in this case), writing it on a piece of paper (money) and then putting it into a drawer (the bank); those stars being of value only because the guy on the planet said so. Since the man lived on a mini-planet all by himself, of what use is the concept of money?

But okay, I can at least understand that. At some point it becomes clear that you can't carry around a few hundred beaver pelts to trade in for a new Corvette, so everyone needs to keep their stuff of value in one place (the bank). The place can evaluate how much your stuff is "worth", quantify it in numbers, and then give you a sheet of paper or some tokens with the numerical value of your stuff (money). You then trade these numbers around, and when you trade it in at the place, the place will give you stuff equal to the amount you traded in. While wonky, it makes sense right?

But because this is the 21st century, it's become even more complex and a bit absurd, because the use of paper and tokens is starting to disappear as well. No, nowadays all we have are plastic cards and numbers displayed on a computer monitor, literally figments of our imagination because we cannot grasp or hold it. We do transactions online, transferring those pretty numbers from one area to another. It rises and falls on a regular basis. Are you saying that I am doing all this work, this labour, giving up so much so I can receive in return... some numbers on the computer screen? It reminds me of the ending of Fight Club as well. If we are dependent on storing our life savings, our entire life's work's "value", onto a couple of magnetic disks, if they are wiped out, then what exactly have we done all that work for? Where do all the fur pelts go? Everything would be worthless. People would start from zero all over again. It's just, again, a figment of our imagination; even if the blood, sweat and tears are real.

The concept of lending money and borrowing money that technically isn't yours, is also rather strange. How can you give away fur pelts that you do not have? Isn't it the same as writing an IOU for pelts that you owe? And why can't you just disappear, or whistle and look away and feign innocence when you reply "What pelts"? I guess that's why the financiapocalypse of 2009 occurred, because people used money that they didn't have.

It's the only system we have for assigning "value" for the things we do, and since there's so many of us, perhaps the most organized/easiest. But it's very wonky, a bit absurd yes, and definitely not perfect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so a conversation between a friend and I turned over to cars. And it wasn't until then that I realize that people's idea of what it means to be a car enthusiast is different depending on who you ask. Should be obvious, but I never thought about it. My friend assumed that because I was a car enthusiast, that I am the type of person to buy a brand new car and then modify it.

No. Well, I'm not that kind of car enthusiast at least. There are obviously several types, and while I don't think that there is necessary a "right" kind of car enthusiast, I am not the type of person to oggle after supercars, and I am not the kind of person to buy a new car, like what my friend, and indeed most people, would assume.

What sort of car enthusiast am I? I'm the type that enjoys this:





To me, a S30 Datsun 240Z that has a rusted hood, mismatched fender, extremely poorly cut fenders (you can still see the burn marks), fender-flare kits held together by salvaged bolts, and with giant deep-dish wheels with visible camber, is the kind of car that I like.

But what the fuck, right? Why the hell do I like a car like this? It's somewhat hard to explain, but let me try: The 240Z is one of my favourite cars because it came from an era where automotive design ruled. It was a pretty decent rear-wheel drive performer (along with stablemate Datsun 510, the "poor man's BMW"), and it was just drop-dead gorgeous. Because it is rusted, it means that the car has been places, it has seen things, it has many stories to tell. Just like how I love my Jimmy (which has been with me through the end of high school until now), this 240Z has stories galore. Because of the flare-kits and insane wheels, this owner didn't give a fuck to modern cars and wanted to drive something that HE loved, something that oozed style and something that nobody has really done before. Something that he bought under a budget that he could afford, something that he put together and learned from. The owner of the car came up from a 4th generation Civic hatchback, and while it's a great performer, he said that it does not elicite the same type of passionate response that a car like the Datsun 240Z does. It's a car that blends rat-rods, Japanese vintage classics and America's weird obsession with large tires and low stances together, something that has a cultural impact, as well as a nostalgia for a time when the Toyota Prius wasn't even an inkling. It is precisely because of this blend of "What the fuck?" and "Oh my god it's so damn cool" that makes me a car enthusiast.

Granted, I wasn't always like this. I admit I had a bit of a ricer complex when I first started off in cars. After all, I got into cars mainly because I thought my Subaru Impreza WRX STi (GC8) in the Initial D arcade game was damn cool (and really, the GC8 is). I too oggled supercars for a while, and I read stupid websites like Autoblog and Consumer Reports and Motor Trend on a daily basis, where I realized I started to not give a fuck about the Bugatti Veyron's top speed or which old white guy was going to take over as CEO of GM. Fun to know, I guess, but is it really relevant to how one feels about cars? It wasn't until I found a website like Jalopnik, where the witty, crass-humoured and unbelievably cool and old school machinery turned me into a fan of cars that I never thought was there. I think that's where it all really started. Jalopnik turned me into a person who just likes cars and the way they look, into a person who not only likes cars, but appreciates the engineering and work behind them, the people who drive them, and the history that surrounds them. I liked it... everything from Saab's "born from jets" roots to the fact that the Wankel-Rotary looks like somebody got drunk and then found a spirograph set before wondering "Well fuck, how can I make this into an engine?". I looked more into cars than just the manufacturer-posted specs (which is why I started hating the Nissan GTR, when it became apparent it was poorly engineered and designed and with a draconian warranty). I found people just like me who enjoys wrenching on things (though in my case, it's two very simple motorcycles, my CBR125R and CT70). I started looking at the horrendous mods done to poor Japanese and German cars that never deserved them and pitied them. I completely dislikethe Porsche Cayenne, BMW X6, aforementioned Nissan GTR, and most CUVs. I began to appreciate cars that includes tons of carrying space, great durability, driving dynamics and a high revving small displacement engine. I became a graduate, a person who not only liked cars, but car culture.

I'm not the buy a new car and then mod it, then cry about it when somebody scratches it type of person. I am the buy a historical and awesome used and well-loved car, improve (not modify) it with my own hands, and then drive it the way it's meant to be driven. One of my ambitions (I would not say dream, because it's not the only thing I want) is a 1992+ Acura NSX with my own modifications. One of my "other" ambition is a Nissan S30 for my girlfriend, complete in British racing green, a partial roll cage, a 4-point racing harness and suspension modifications, as well as minor engine and transmission work. Through my life I hope to cycle throughout several cars, and the ultimate project would be for me to build my own car, a Kit '65 Daytona Coupe from Factory Five Racing (or similar). Oh, and a collection of vintage Japanese and British motorcycles in the garage to top it off. While doing all this, I'd probably end up saving a lot more money than those people who somehow love to buy expensive german cars only for them to lose $20-$30K per year from depreciation (poor SOBs, shoulda got a BMW E30 3-series).

And that's the kind of car enthusiast that I am, having arrived here after nearly 8 years of car fandom.

Believe it or not though, as much as cars interest me, they are not the be-all end-all of my life as I have become a geek about all things in general. And not even the latte-sipping, iPhone surfing while walking into people on the street because I'm not paying attention, sort of geek. Because of my financial situation I have been forced to tinker extensively with things I own and make everything better. I've become the tear-things-apart and DIY type of geek now. My impending degree in mechanical engineering and work experience isn't helping matters. And yeah, it's been both a blessing and a curse, as my girlfriend will attest =D

~Eastside

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