Journal entries for June, 2009

It feels good to be home, and with three good songs in the bank no less.

Dudes! Nashville still has Cheesy Gordita Crunch technology! This trip has paid off already!

Off to Nashville to make magic

Sitting at the dealer with the tv blaring America's Strictest Parents on CMT. How I long for a TV-B-Gone.

I really miss my Roller-Racer. What effective transportation it was.

Attention to detail helps -- it's not impressive to claim your car gets 35 mph on the highway.

Dealer didn't have it. Filed police report. Sigh. Got quote for renter's insurance: $12/mo. Man. Wish I'd had it. Definitely getting it now.

Time to go put some whoopass on the dealer. (really more like ask politely if anyone's seen my bag)

My $2500 worth of camera gear may be stolen? It's not in my house or in my car. Do I really need to lock the car even in the garage? Sigh.

Machine-readable survey w/bubbles like the SAT. Return envelope says 'ATTN: CarMax President.' Dudes. The president of CarMax is a robot

Disassembling my brand new car. Keep reminding myself: If you can't open it, you don't own it.

Aww, I was excited about going to bed, and then I remembered I still have to wash off the greasepaint.

Come rock out with Senryu and Pattern Is Movement at the Pilot Light tonight!

Buying a new car is an exhausting and draining process.

I suspect rain contains triptophan.

There are various different needs that a car usually fulfills for a person. General around-town driving (the majority of my car use) involves one set of priorities — I want a small, light, manual transmission, fuel-efficient car that can carry 4 people comfortably and has a good amount of cargo space. For roadtrips and other long-distance driving, the priorities shift — more comfortable seats, air conditioning, and cruise control become factors.

For the last few years I've owned two different cars to try to meet those different aspects of transportation — my $800 '89 Civic hatchback is my around-town car. It does its job admirably — it's dead reliable and never gives any problems, it's light and compact, the 5-speed keeps the driving fun, it gets 30-35 mpg easily, and the hatchback makes it capable of carrying surprising amounts of cargo. But the a/c doesn't work, and it's pretty uncomfortable on long drives because of the cheap seats, lack of cruise control, and short gearing which makes the throttle pedal really sensitive at highway speeds. So during the hot summer months or on long drives, it's less than ideal.

[Entry Continues...]

You know in Dan In Real Life how the main girl is dating Dane Cook and he's a superficial jerk and everyone knows she needs to get rid of him and get together with Steve Carell, but then Dane Cook finds a superficial girl and the main girl is free to get together with the nice guy and everyone ends up happy? I'm the main girl and the Buick was my Dane Cook, and this is the happy ending of the movie.

So you'll buy ANY car, carmax? I'll put that claim to the test.

Rinsing out this bottle of barbecue sauce for recycling was the most delicious-smelling thing I've ever done.

I might be buying a shiny brand new car tomorrow. Exciting.

Car shopping. Hey general populace, way to always pick automatic transmissions! Why are there zero manual-tranny cars available used?

At last, Google Chrome (sort of) runs on Linux! And man is it fast.

This wedding sermon is actually pretty good. No mention of 9/11 this time fortunately http://yfrog.com/eav15rj

Of course, the doubly-exhausted feeling of 8 hours of manual labor followed by 8 hours of working at a computer is not so great

The exhausted feeling after a day of manual labor DOES feel satisfying. But making 3 times as much sitting at a computer has its own charm

Forklift operator: "Don't worry, I ain't gonna hit ya. I just ate lunch and I don't wanna belly laugh."

Wow. The Buick is acting so caricaturishly terrible. We just watched Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist the other day — the Buick was apparently an understudy for the part of the bitchy ex-girlfriend that treated the guy terribly until he finally starts thinking of getting rid of her, and then she fakes being nice to keep stringing him along, only long enough to twist the knife and do something else terrible. It's comical. I've never come this close to actually carrying through with my fantasies of destroying a car with a sledgehammer and a sawzall.