I’m driving the Saab and being that this is my first event, I’m rocking the Novice class. So far I’m the only one, which means I’ll win my class haha (and also come in last I suppose). In any case, I can’t wait, even if the Saab is completely stock and probably isn’t the best car for autocross.

So far the majority of other cars signed up are a few Lotus cars and some Miatas. I think there’s a Subie in there too somewhere, and a few others I can’t remember off the top of my head. What I’m getting at is, most of them are completely different from the Saab. So if I know my car is worse than others for the event, why bother?

Here’s the other thing about autocross: the organizers have seemingly put a ton of time into organizing classes for not only each kind of car, but also any mods people make to the cars. So what I’m saying, at the end of the day, I will be able to, for the most part, figure out how my driving skill level matches up with the other drivers, no matter what they show up driving.

If by chance I don’t finish dead last I’ll be pleased. Beating Nate in one of the runs would make the today a complete success (it won’t happen…unless he bashes a bunch of cones for time penalties).

Thanks to a friend telling me about mediafire, I’ve been finding new music every night. The problem? Most music today is worthless. One band that I find interesting is the pop-punk band Set Your Goals. I don’t care if they’re Warped Tour darlings or Best Buy feature artists, I like them. And Matt & Kim’s new album is brilliant…go buy it.

I started a new diet. It’s called “if you don’t eat you can’t gain weight”. It works until I get hungry. I suppose the bigger plus is that I no longer drink soda/pop/soft drinks/whatever you call them. Exception: drinking 7 & 7s at bars/pubs…excellent! I also kind of quit McDonald’s and various other fast food places. Exception: Jimmy John’s…once again excellent!

This summer I started wearing shorts again. This is a good thing especially the past day or two being that it’s about 200 degrees outside.

I’ve been drinking tea quite a bit lately. Stash tea is still the best…which reminds me, I need more Stash Lemon Spice Green Tea; time for another trip to Portland.

I want to play in a band again. For awhile I enjoyed just playing guitar and programming stuff with drum machines because I didn’t need to depend on other people’s schedules to match up to set-up times to play. Now I miss the insanity/hassle of playing gigs. I should do this again…

Stick shift cars make driving more fun. Enough said.

I’ve come to the conclusion that recently cutting my hair/beard was the correct decision. I looked like Zach Galifianakis and Ryan Dunn (R.I.P.) long enough. Plus, it’ll grow back.

That’s all for now. See you next month, if not sooner (I swear I’ll try).

A couple co-workers and I went to a newly re-opened bar to see how the place has changed. We were minding our own business making fun of each other when a girl walked up to us and said to my friend “I noticed you’re wearing a Minnesota Twins shirt” and then said to me “and you’re wearing a Minnesota Wild hat. Are you guys from Minnesota?”

After we told her were weren’t from Minnesota, but were Twins and Wild fans, she said she was from New York and a Yankees fan (ugh seriously? of all the teams…ugh). We then went into a bit of a sports conversation and finally traded names etc etc before she joined her friends at a different table.

It was the next day that I realized if there was the very good possibility that if she didn’t see that Twins shirt and/or Wild hat she wouldn’t have even come up to chat. I then began thinking about how many different types of things I wear. If we had been wearing clothes without sports teams logos, would she still have talked to us? If I wore something different would someone else wanted to talk with me/us?

The problem is that we never know what kind of people we’re going to meet when we walk out the door for the day. When I’m leaving for work or whatever, if I knew I’d later that night meet a girl that loves Saucony shoes, you could bet for sure I’d be wearing those. But, of course, none of us ever know. So what do we do?

Answer for me is to continuing wearing whatever is on top of my pile of clean clothes. I can’t be bothered to think about looking good; I just want to wear something that makes me legal to go out in public a.k.a. not naked.

This isn’t a post about fashion, or “watch what you wear” kind of thing. This is a eureka moment that I had that got me thinking about how many other times people (females) were judging me by what I was wearing at a specific time. By all means, do not use this text as a reason to go out and buy more clothes haha.

Now this isn’t a call to designers to go nuts with site updates and redoing entire websites…those throw me off as I get lost on sites that I know exactly where to go.

I think it’s the actual content. Go to a sport website, check the scores, and done. Go to a forum, browse the newest threads/posts, and done. And then I’m lost.

I want to find new content and things to enjoy, but I don’t want to have to think about it before I search for it. I want to find something and then want more. I’m bad at coming up with ideas; I need ideas to find me so I can explore them.

This is the same problem I have with Netflix. At first finding movies I wanted to watch was easy because there was a pile of them I wanted to see. Now, I know there are alot of good movies I haven’t seen and probably don’t know about. But now I’m relying on Netflix to find me movies, and some nights nothing interesting comes up.

And then there are search engines; even searching sites like the one mentioned above. I will have a basic idea of what I want, but if I miss one word it seems I miss out on everything I was looking for.

I’m really hoping sometime I’ll find a way to find interesting things again. I wish it was easier to do.

There are two main problems with bikes…well now that I think of it, lots of problems…but I’ll stick with two. Problem one is I’m lazy. I’m usually lazy because I don’t get enough sleep. I don’t get enough sleep because I stay up all night watching TV and writing gems like this. This, though, can be solved.

I have a nice bike; if anything were to happen to my bike, I’d be crushed. This leads me to the 2nd problem. It would be great to ride my bike to a shop for a quick item or something, but I’m insanely afraid of someone breaking my bike while it’s locked up on the street, or even worse stealing it. This has lead me to the idea of finding a cheap used bike. This way I wouldn’t need to worry (as much) about someone vandalizing it or stealing it. But me being attached to everything I buy (everything has sentimental value) I’d probably be crushed if anything would happen to el cheapo also.

But, this gives me a chance to get a different type of bike…a road bike. I could buy a road bike, convert it to a single speed (or fixie if I dare), and have some fun. How hard can it be to find a used road bike? With the amount of people that sit in front of TVs every chance they get, and everyone’s willingness to drive everywhere, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a cheap bike that isn’t being used, should it?

I do however enjoy watching movies when they come on TV. And for whatever reason, even when I have a DVD of a movie, when it comes on TV I feel obligated to watch it. I also enjoy older movies. I’m not talking silent screen stuff, but, well for example, The Longest Day is one of my favorites.

Now for the weird taste in movies…I’ll start off with a shocker: I think Anchorman isn’t that good. I was excited to watch it when I saw it was going to be on TV. Well, I didn’t last 20 minutes into the movie. Honestly I can’t stand Will Ferrell, who everyone else seems to think is a comedy genius. To me he’s annoying and over-the-top.

While at work I mentioned that I didn’t like Anchorman, and I could only laugh when everyone thought I was joking. Seriously? Is my idea of humor that different? My coworkers then rattled off titles of other “great comedies” and I dismissed all of them as either “bad” or “haven’t seen/no interest in seeing”. Ironically, the majority, if not all, of these titles starred Will Ferrell. Huh.

Two things are still bugging to be looked at though. First is the radio antenna. The Saab has an old style antenna that when you turn the radio on, it goes up. When you turn radio off, it retracts. Well, somethings broken and it doesn’t do that so well. I turn on radio, the first part of antenna goes up and then I just hear a loud “click click click”, but no more antenna extension. Booo…

Sadly, it could be complicated (not really, but for me, yes). I guess what I really mean is it could be a number of different things, and the fixes could include resetting it (or something like that) to replacing the whole thing. I really want to give it a go and see if I can fix it. I suppose it’s not the most risky fix on a vehicle, aye?

The next thing that I’d love to get working correctly is the SID…or Saab Info Display (I think…I forget, it’s not important, is it?). The SID displays all the cool info like gas mileage, trip mileage, etc etc blah blah blah. But apparently, SIDs weren’t built too great and alot of their displays become unreadable…like mine. There are alot of fixes available to try courtesy the internet, but do I dare try one? Getting the thing out of the dash would be victory for me. It’s one of those things that it doesn’t pay to replace with a new one, but if it could start working it would add to the fun.

Did I mention driving Saab is a blast? Here’s the thing: if the Saab is willing to make me happy while I’m driving it, shouldn’t I make the Saab happy by fixing every possible thing (not that it’s a project type car…just those two mishaps). I guess we’ll see…

When things are working correctly computers are great. Entertainment, work etc etc. Plus, there’s that little thing called the internet.

I must say, I really like my current laptop computer. MacBook Pro works great and it looks great too. My main dislike for computers comes into play when visiting family and at work.

Both places are dealing with viruses currently. It’s a shame because they are so easily picked up without knowing, even when careful. At, at both places, it’s not like they weren’t protected. Things just happen and those things cause problems.

There are many days where I wish I could just unplug and move to the middle of nowhere and not deal with anything modern. Sadly, I’m sure I would get bored reading books for entertainment, and I’d be really bummed without electricity to play electric guitars.

Delay pedals:

First is the Empress Effects Vintage Modified Superdelay. This thing is somewhat of a powerhouse…able to do more things than a guitar player could even think of. Sadly, it comes at a somewhat of a powerhouse price as well…$449. Ouch.

I’m also interested in the Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Boy. It’s quite a different animal in that it’s analog delay, and EHX isn’t considered “boutique”…whatevs. Why do I like it? Options like tap tempo. It’s also quite different in price…around $179.

The third is the TC Electronic Nova Repeater. It’s sort of the middle between the first two…digital with a few different settings like the Superdelay, but cheaper like the D.M.B. at only $169.

Interface:

I want to record music using my computer. I need an interface to do that. First option is the Presonus Firestudio Mobile. It’s a firewire interface. It comes bundled with StudioOne Artist software, which is made by Presonus.

The second option is Focusrite Saffire Pro 24. This is also a firewire interface. It’s the same price as the Presonus…actually the only difference I can find is the bundled software. To be honest, I have a feeling the Presonus software is better…I’m not sure why I’m still debating this.

Car:

I want a new car. I wanted a 2010 VW GTI. I had all my options picked out and was ready to order one at my local dealer, only to find out VW stopped orders on the 2010 and only started 2011 model orders. Problem is, I’m hearing rumors about package changes and this and that, but nothing has officially changed on VW’s website. I keep telling myself I can’t order a car until I’m exactly sure what I’ll get.

The other option is the VW Golf R20. This car may very well not exist…I’ll explain. It was at a car show…basically it’s a superpowered Golf (the GTI is also a tuned up Golf…but the R20 is more powerful even). Every online publication I can find claims the R20 is coming to the USA summer of 2010 (NOW!). Sadly, my local dealer says there’s no such thing coming. hmmm, what now?

My third option is say screw VW for adding stress to my life and start my search all over for something else.

Phone:

I need a new phone. At first I was waiting for the new Apple iphone. It looks quite nice. But then of course there were all the opening day problems: discolored screen, people holding their phones wrong (WTF), etc etc. Not to mention, I’d need to switch to AT&T (not a huge problem…just annoying switching to another carrier…if there’s even an AT&T store in this town). But, I do think Apple has the best designed App store.

My other option is the yet-to-be-released Motorola Droid X. It’s on Verizon (no changing stuff). It’s also a Motorola…not that I love the company, but I’ve had 3 mobile phones in my life, 2 of which (including my current phone) have been Motorolas. Also, the design is everything I wanted the original Droid to be: a phone without a keyboard! I think I like the actual phone better than the iphone, but I don’t trust the Android market as much as Apple’s ap store. ugh.