Day 31: Word is Bond

Spoiler alert:  the car doesn't survive.  Bond, however, does.

I think we're a little behind the curve here but last night V. and I finally went to the movie theaters to watch the latest James Bond film, Skyfall.  I had seen some reviews that said it was perhaps one of the better Bond movies in recent times, so I went in with pretty high expectations.  I'm not so sure that those expectations were met, but I have to say there was a lot to enjoy about the movie, and a lot to think about.

The Daniel Craig-era Bond continues to be a cold and brutal assassin, a very stark contrast to the more polished Pierce Brosnan and the nearly comical Roger Moore.  He shows significant compassion or at least respect to his fellow MI6ers but everyone else is viewed as a means to an end.  There are a few moments in the movie where you see his actions and start to wonder if he is such a good guy after all.  There are movies where you have a likeable character who plays something like a soldier or spy and although they may have to do some regrettable or violent things you get the final takeaway that this person is a good person, someone worth cheering for and liking.  The Craig-Bond is not that kind of guy.  There is the occasional comedic moment and wry commentary by Bond as he makes light of a serious situation, but make no mistake about it, this Bond is not your buddy, he's not your role-model, you don't want to invite him over for dinner and cocktails (unless you're some overly confident archvillain who underestimates him, or some well-heeled or well-connected politico who needs his protection).  Bond is a trained killer, he's an alcoholic, and aside from his penchant for bedding hot women, using them to get to the next bad guy, and then leaving them to die, he is, as he said in Quantum of Solace, "only motivated by [his] duty".  He pauses and watches as another hired assassin kills a target, and only steps in once it's done.  He shows little to no remorse when the archvillain he is after kills the female "asset" he used to find him.  Nothing stops him from achieving his mission, whatever that happens to be:  whether it's drinking a tequila shot without being stung by a scorpion to win some bar bet, or chasing some villain across the world and through some of the most crowded cities.

So it's the ultimate escapist fantasy for many men and women:  who wouldn't want to be (or be with) the international spy with zero remorse who travels to exotic locales, fights terrorism, beats bad guys senseless and wears finely tailored suits and is equipped with seemingly unlimited budget and gadgetry?  Not to mention the coveted 00-Section's "license to kill".  It's definitely not the moral compass or feel-good movie of the year.  But having read so many of the original Ian Fleming 007 books, and a few of the John Gardner continuation books, I have to say this version of the Bond seems very, perhaps too harshly, close to the James Bond depicted in the original stories.  He's no upper-class gentleman with polo and cricket as his favorite pastimes.  He's a thuggish strong-willed bloke who'd probably enjoy watching rugby or MMA matches when he (if he) ever gets a day off.  Well he actually does get a few days off in this movie when he is assumed killed, and he spends it... drinking heavily, walking along the beach (to the bar) and sleeping with hot brunettes.  He's an unapologetic hedonistic bastard.  And oddly, people love that about him.

Hmmn why aren't my 37 days being spent like that?  OK I don't have many days left in my vacation but I'm going to try to be more Bond-like.  Whip my body into better shape so I can cling to the bottom of elevators climbing dozens of stories high.  Spend more time driving sports cars, and shooting (photos and guns).  The killing and the bedding of multiple femme fatales, yeah that isn't going to happen.  But I may work on being a lot less apologetic.  New Years Resolution:  Be a bad ass.

Happy New Year, wishing everyone a better 2013.

Day 29: negative cash flow

Hey, who jacked my wheels?!

It's been an expensive month for me.  Let me catalog a few of the items.

Christmas gifts for my honey V.  $XXX but worth it to keep her smiling!  Especially when I'm blowing all this other money on my cars and toys ...

The $20 app I mentioned before, Harry's Lap Timer Pro on the App Store for iOS.  Better than a dedicated lap timer with neat features like Google Maps integration, and video overlay functions.

I also threw another $3.99 at another app, Gas Manager for iOS.  It tracks your fuel mileage and consumption every time you go to fill up at the gas station, for multiple cars and lets you display the data in various charts and logs so you can nerd out on the statistics.  The app is free to download but after you've entered 10 fill ups you will have to buy the app to continue adding more.  I found myself using it and liking it so I went ahead and bought it.  What the heck, a holiday milk shake at Sonic costs more than $3.99 these days.

Some Subaru camber bolts for the suspension.  They allow some adjustment for more negative camber on the front tires, to improve cornering response.  These are pretty damn expensive at $7 each so $14 for a pair.

New racing brake pads and brake fluid upgrades for the BRZ.  Ended up being overkill since the track day I attended was wet and rainy so we were relatively easy on the brakes, but it will pay off the next time I go to the track on a dry day.  About $200.  As an added bonus, my brakes now squeal like a hoopty whenever I come to a stop.  But that's racing, buddy.  Function over style.

A Berk Technology racing catless front pipe, plus the cost of the install at a local muffler shop when we realized that we couldn't get the original part off without cutting off an impossibly tight nut.  About $320 with installation.  Hard to say if the sound has changed much but the power seems slightly improved.

Berk FP removes the secondary cat from the exhaust, improving flow and performance.

The guy didn't want any photos taken while he was installing the pipe, so here is a super secret spy shot.

Track day at Thunderhill.  $195.  I did get a free T-shirt out of it too!  Yay.

I also woke up one day and found the rear tire on my Lexus IS350 had gone flat.  My poor Lexus has sat idle at home on a spare.  I thought it was just a tire puncture and took it to a tire shop.  Turns out it was a bent and cracked rim not the tire. As it turns out this set of wheels is pretty rare now and no longer in production.    And I just found out that the wheel cannot be repaired.  So I'm stuck with 3 wheels that won't match with anything else I can get.  I guess I will go back to my original 18" wheels and have to buy another new set of tires for them.  Estimate that will cost me around $600.  Ugh.

Back to more happy things.  Got some new toys for my game room display shelves, these were mostly inexpensive but a few are hard-to-find collectibles.  About $50.

My new FIVE:AD spoiler arrived for my BRZ.  I have dropped it off to a paint & body shop to get it painted and hopefully will have it installed in the next week or so.  $300 + $165 paint & install.  That makes it about equivalent to the factory spoiler cost but I like the style of this one better.

I've been using the same racing helmet for around 12 years now, it's a replica of Jean Alesi's F1 Playstation helmet.  It was SA95 certified which means it meets 1995 standards of safety.  They come out with new standards every 5 years so the current standard is SA2010.  For track days and gokarting places they generally allow helmets from the past 2 cert periods.  So, it's time to retire the old helmet and spring for a new helmet.  I ordered a new Pyrotect full-face helmet but this time it's in a plain-looking gloss black finish.  No fancy F1 racer designs this time around.  That'll be another $300 from the bank account.
My old helmet will go on display in my game room, seems appropriate given that is where I play racing games like Gran Turismo on my PS3.

Hmmm have I spent all of my year-end bonus yet?

Day 28: charging into battle

Well I hope everyone had a great holiday.  So much for promises.  Once again I found myself busy with other things and without enough time to make another entry to this blog until now.  In the days leading up to Christmas I was busy getting my car ready for the racetrack, and then I went to visit my dad up near Roseville, followed by a track day at the Thunderhill Raceway way up north near Chico.  

The track day was super wet and cold, and it rained most of the morning.  The early sessions on the track weren't very fun.  Lots of people driving beyond their limits and going off track and one Porsche 911 crashed/spun into a barrier, losing a front bumper and deploying airbags as a result.  I was definitely taking it easy since my car is so new (and new to me) until the weather improved and it started to dry off on track in the afternoon.  There were so many cautions and off-course tows that we got what I felt was fairly minimal time on track.  I think next time I will go with a more organized and safety-oriented club for a track day.  

Here are a few recorded track laps I made using my iPhone and an app called Harry's Lap Timer Pro ($20).  The most expensive app I have ever bought but it's actually worth it in my mind because it does things you would normally have to pay hundreds of dollars to do in dedicated equipment.  It logs your GPS position and speed, measures lateral G forces, and records video.  I used the Kensington mount I've mentioned before and it worked well with the phone mounted to the windshield.

here's one of the last laps of the day, showing more of the passing and being passed that goes on in most sessions where you have a mix of different cars and drivers with differing abilities.

It's been an expensive month for me... between some planned automotive purchases, the track day, and Christmas presents, and some unplanned automotive expenses (cracked one of the rims on my Lexus IS350) I have been charging up a storm on the credit card.  More on the expenses to come.

Day 17: loss of traction

I have to admit I haven't been very diligent about keeping this blog updated for the last week. Perhaps that's a good thing because that means I've been keeping busy. But I'm going to try and keep things updated regularly because otherwise too much may have happened and I may have forgotten some of it.

So let's see what I've been up to? Well I went for a few drives and brought my Subaru into the dealership to have the GPS repaired so I was without my BRZ for a few days. I took advantage of some of that downtime to visit the Blackhawk Auto Museum. I hadn't been there in many years and it was nice to come back and see some great classic cars that they have in their collection. I didn't bring my Nikon DSLR with me but I did take quite a few pictures with my iPhone and I have to say it did a pretty good job especially with the HDR function. Link to my auto museum photos here.

One of the many gorgeous cars at the Blackhawk Auto Museum

This thing is massive.  And made of wood!

Sunset at the Blackhawk Museum

I've been going out and having lunch with coworkers or with V for a few days so I haven't had much opportunity to cook anything fantastic. Just a few pasta dishes and grilled sandwiches that Sort of thing.

I got the chance to watch The Hobbit in an advance screening sponsored by my firm. I have to admit I'm not much of a Lord of the Rings fan so The Hobbit was a bit of a strange movie for me. I had a hard time distinguishing the trolls from the goblins and so on.  It definitely felt like the movie was too long and the entire story could have been told in far less time. I got the sense that they were stretching it out just to make it another three-movie box office cashcow.  Oh well, the nice thing was the firm covered all concessions for us, so we went to town on the popcorn, candy, snacks and drinks!

Last weekend V and I attended my firm's holiday party. It was at the Stonybrook mansion in Los Altos Hills which is a very nice place for a party or gathering. I wish I could say I have some nice pictures from the event but unfortunately my stay there was cut a little short. I was chatting with some coworkers when I suddenly felt faint and actually passed out in the middle of the reception area. They called an ambulance and ended up taking me to the emergency room at the nearby hospital where I received a bunch of tests and x-rays. The results were fairly inconclusive as everything looked normal but it appears the most likely cause was dehydration. I'm doing much better now but I have to say it was a very interesting experience riding in an ambulance for the first time to be taken to the hospital. And surely I made a grand exit from the party on a stretcher.  One thing's for sure, I'm going to be drinking plenty of water from now on.

So I've been taking it easy last few days but today I'm back on the elliptical. In fact I'm on the elliptical now as I speak and my iPhone is taking down my words so that I can update this blog using the blogger app. The accuracy is pretty good and I've only had to make a few changes here and there to fix some weird word recognition issues. Ain't technology grand?

That's it for this update. Stay tuned for more stories later this week.

Day 10: driven to distractions

Would be feeling patriotic but for the fact these were all made in Japan...

Yesterday I went out and met up with a few other BRZ/FRS owners and went for a brief drive on some back roads... it was a lot of fun but we kept it a short run.  It left me wanting more so today I set out on my own and drove one of my favorite roads.  I set up both my iPhone 5 and old Sony digital camera to record the drive, but the Sony's video was basically unwatchable - too much shaking and rattling going on.  The iPhone which was mounted on the front windshield seemed to get much better results.  Here is video of just the first 8 minutes or so of the drive, the actual road is much longer, closer to about 30 miles long.

Day 8: timing is everything

Here are a few time lapse videos I created over the last few days.






I also washed my cars. :)

Day 7: an unexpected road battle

this is not a racing story... more of a "two gentleman drivers who happened upon a road together" story.

A most worthy adversary.

 Met up with a friend today and was headed home afterwards... didn't have anything to do so I decided to take the long way home... the twisty way. This is a short backroad that is not too much of a major thoroughfare so when you are lucky, you can get this road all to yourself. I love this road and have driven it many times. I will not say the name of the road, to protect the identity of the innocent and the secrecy of the road So I turn on to this road and ... what's that behind me? A pair of bright headlights, HIDs... within a few seconds I realize it's a McLaren. Oh snap! It's like the epic Motor Trend Best Drivers' Car comparo, only with me cast as the pudgy bespectacled Jonny Lieberman. And probably Randy Pobst behind the wheel of the 592hp, $250K McLaren.

 My BRZ is totally stock motor and suspension. I already know how this is going to end, but I know in my heart I have to give it a go. So I floor it and we charge into the canyon together, engines roaring. His a lot louder than mine of course. We go into the first few turns hot -- for me it's flat out. When I have time to glance in the rearview he is right there with me. I maintain a ferocious pace, this might have been the fastest I've ever taken these corners. It's a tight snaking road, and you get to the point where you start slowing down not because you don't have mechanical grip, you slow down because there are blind corners and you don't know what might be around the next corner. I think in a few of these corners, I "outbraved" the McLaren because I carried more speed through the turns and he slowed down, so I could see that he dropped back. Perhaps he wasn't as familiar with the roads, or perhaps he wanted to give me some space. But a few turns later he was back on my tail.

 We carried on this way for maybe a quarter mile, maybe half mile. Hard to say for sure. Then we came upon slower traffic -- a VW Jetta doing it's own normal thing. We slowed down and formed up behind it. And I thought, with some relief, here is my honorable way out. After perhaps another half mile of following it, a small turnout came up. The Jetta didn't take it. I nudged my BRZ to the right to give the McLaren enough room to pass and slowed. He came around and now we were VW - McLaren - BRZ.

Now closely following the McLaren, I rolled down my window and waited for what I knew would come. The next patch of road that was semi straight, that V8 roared and off went the McLaren, passing around the VW in a matter of seconds. I wasn't going to try the same thing, I knew how short these straights were and I just didn't have the power to pass if the VW didn't cooperate. And a good thing too as we passed oncoming traffic a few turns later. So I followed meekly behind it for a while longer, when it finally pulled out to let me pass and I picked up my pace once more, the McLaren was nowhere to be seen. I eventually caught up to another car, an Acura TL, and passed that one on one of the longer straights but before long I reached the end of this fairly short route. Did not see the McLaren again.

 So that's my story. I don't know what was going through the head of the McLaren driver, whether he thought "oh good show, this BRZ's got heart", or it was "what is this ricey rubbish, make way, peasant!". I just know that we had a rip roaring good time and it was a memorable highlight to my day. I had a big grin on my face as I drove the rest of the way home, and it just got even bigger when I got a call from the local Subaru dealership, asking if I was interested in buying a WRB BRZ they had available, and my response was "actually, I'm driving one right now. But thank you for calling."

Day 6: what's cooking?

Got a little busy with other things these past few days... cooking, taking photos, having lunch with friends. All very enjoyable, I am taking to this vacation thing quite well. So this is sort of what it's like to win the lottery and not work, just doing what you want to do. I could get used to this. I made dinner for me and V. the other night, inspired by our dinner at Pasta Pomodoro. I boiled and then stir fried some Brussells sprouts with butter and garlic, and then followed it up with some fettucine with red marinara sauce and some Italian sausage, and some chicken prosciutto borsetti.   I wasn't sure what borsetti is either, that's fancy Italian for wontons or dumplings.  I have to admit I kind of overcooked the sprouts and they were a little soft, but I thought the pasta was spot on and V. seemed fairly pleased with the results. Consider that a success.

We also just got a new toaster oven by Breville, that seems to be the bee's knees. Toasted sandwiches and Pop Tarts alike never tasted so good. This was supposed to be V.'s Christmas present but I am definitely getting more benefit out of it so far. Maybe this is supposed to be my Christmas present? Ohoh that means I still have some shopping to do...

Also made this rich man's version of a sausage egg mcmuffin for breakfast one morning, V. loved it.  Made with 2 turkey patties, a scrambled brown egg and cheddar cheese on a wheat English muffin.  So good.

Day 3: snap judgments, and stocking up for the Zapocalypse

I went for a drive today and stopped by the Sunol Water Temple which is a nice spot for some photos, so I took a few shots ... these are all from my iPhone so they are just OK shots but perhaps I will have to come back sometime with my DSLR.  I am probably overusing the panorama function but it's just so much fun to use it.

On the way home I stopped by the supermarket and stocked up on food items ... got some whipped cream, ramen, cans of chili, and some pop tarts... everything a growing boy needs to survive the impending zombie apocalypse.  OK I did get some Brussels sprouts too.  Last night V. and I went to Pasta Pomodoro for dinner and the sprouts we ordered as an appetizer were pretty good so I'd like to try my hand and making them at home. 

I was looking forward to playing some Battlefield 3 yesterday but there was a massive update I had to download and due to some network issues it went very slowly... took all night to download everything to my PS3 and install it.  Looking forward to checking out the new maps and weapons that the Aftermath add-on pack brings to the game.

Day 2: going loopy

Sunday ... a wet and windy morning.  Last night it was pouring rain and I can see some minor flooding in the streets and the neighbor's backyard.  Our back yard seems to be holding up well but a few things got blown around and had to be relocated.  The most amazing thing was our giant stainless steel BBQ (which is on wheels) managed to get blown halfway around the side of the house.  That's some crazy wind right there.  I don't think there's going to be too much going on today, we are probably staying home.  It gets a little dangerous when I am sitting around on the internet for too long, it tempts me to go shopping online and buy something expensive. :)  So I better go do something else...  like work out on the elliptical WHILE shopping online hahah.

Is that distance in feet?  meters?  yards??  I dunno.

I spent a little time reading the long and tedious user guide for the navigation in my Subaru, and playing around with it.  Hopefully that will help me get familiar with it, I did notice yesterday that I was struggling to put in a location and get directions to someplace.  It was far easier to use Siri on my iPhone and get the directions on that instead.  But now I need to take some road trips to test out my newfound knowledge.

Put together the Hot Wheels loop track that I bought... pretty cool but it's a little hard to get enough speed on the car to make it all the way around the loop.  Needs MO' POWAH!

I also played around with the suction cup camera mount that I got on Amazon... plan to use it during my track day at ThunderHill later this month.  Not sure if I like this one, I have some doubts about its ability to hold on to the back windshield. It feels like it will fall off from too much vibration or shock.  I'll test it out for a few days and if it's not good enough, I'm sending it back.

If you hate reading my verbose rambling and just like the pretty pictures, you can follow along on my adventures by following my Instagram page:  http://instagram.com/pmok_mr2/

Or view the photos I take in a new Photobucket album I set up.  http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j118/pmok_mr2/37days/

Day 1: the journey begins

Farewell, Sweet Movember.

I started the day off right by getting on the elliptical and putting in 30 min of workout.  One of my goals during my vacation will be to continue working out, getting exercise from various activities and trying to lose some more weight.  It's going to be tough as there is lots of good food (and bad food) calling my name.  Prime directive #1, satisfied.

The month of November has now passed, and it was time to shave the moustache I had growing for Movember.  Can't say I did a whole lot to actually promote the awareness of men's health issues and testicular cancer, but I did what I could.  Which is to say I grew a moustache, and now it's time to shave it off.  V was certainly happy about that, she doesn't like me growing a moustache.

Then it was off to the Great Mall in Milpitas to meet a few other car club members, fellow owners of BRZs and FR-Ses.  We met in the covered parking garage area so we didn't have to stand out in the rain, so we were able to hang out for a while and talk about cars, racing, and other guy stuff.  The weather was a little too wet and the roads too slippery for anyone to want to go for a mountain drive, so we decided to stop by a Toy Drive charity event and car meet at a local high school.  I popped into the mall before we headed over, to pick up a toy to donate to the cause.

I don't shop for kids very much, and I don't have any myself, so I'm never sure what to get.  In the end I generally get something that I would myself like and hope that works out for the intended recipient. I left the store with a box set of 2 helicopters, a firetruck and a police car.  I also got some Hot Wheels looping track for myself.  Awesome.

We got to the meet a little late and the weather was generally dismal, but it was quite heartening to see this massively long row of tables nearly all covered by toys that people had donated.  That made my day.  And so, prime directive #2 has been met.

It was funny, that at the car meet, one of the other owners asked me if I got a lot of reactions or compliments on my car, and I said, honestly, I had not seen a whole lot of reactions like that since getting the car (aside from other owners of the car, at these car meets).  People seem to ignore me or maybe I just don't pay enough attention while driving to see what other people in cars are doing, maybe they are freaking out and going gaga and I didn't see it.  I thought it was just that in the Bay Area, we have plenty of nice cars around and people just take it for granted - I certainly will gaze admiringly at a Ferrari or Aston Martin when it rolls by but a lot of people just seem to not notice.  And my car is certainly not that nice or expensive.  Generally I just drive it to and from work so there's not much time for human interaction.  But then it was lunchtime and while I was standing around near my car I got like 2 compliments within 5 minutes.  Interesting.

I took these two panoramic shots using my iPhone 5, it really is quite useful for these kinds of pictures.  If I had tried to take them with my SLR I would have been cutting something off in the process, or wishing I had a wide-angle lens.  It's not perfect but here it seems to get the job done.  OK these aren't shots worthy of the Ansel Adams gallery or anything, but I do believe I've managed to hit directive #3 too.

Bonus discovery of the day!  Perhaps not huge news to the most tech-savvy geeks out there, but I realized that you can use the iPhone 5 as a wireless access point to tether things like iPads and laptops to the 4G data service on Verizon.  That basically means I can now use my iPad or Nook tablet anywhere I go, without need for an independent wifi source as long as I've got my phone and I'm in a 4G service area.  So in theory I could type out lengthy emails and blog updates on the road, wherever I go.  Geek-o-rama!

Introduction

I'm starting a new blog site today, 37DaysOff.  It's named quite simply, because that is what I am about to undertake, I have taken the next 37 days off from work, essentially the entire month of December and into the first week of January.  To make a long story short, I haven't had a lot of time off lately and ended up with way too many days of paid vacation.  To give you a sense of my problem, I rolled over 40 days of vacation from 2011 into 2012.  And was about to have the same thing happen this year.  So when things got kind of quiet around the office this winter, I decided to make my move and say, "You know what, I'm taking the month of December off, I'll see you all in 2013.  Peace out."  I suppose a few jaws dropped upon hearing that.  Some people at work were probably not thrilled.  But it's all good, I have definitely been looking forward to the time off.  One coworker said, "you probably deserve it."  Probably?  I'm happy to give myself the benefit of the doubt on that one.

The natural question most people have on the tips of their tongues once they hear I am taking this amount of time off is, "oh so where are you going?"  They expect that I have booked some kind of exotic travel itinerary to Tahiti, or the Galapagos.  Backpacking in Europe, snorkeling in the Bahamas, throwing down my life savings on the table at Le Casino Royale in Monaco?  So they kind of look at me with some disappointment when I say "Nowhere.  Just gonna stay local."  I suppose it's kind of like asking what I'm going to do right after scoring the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl, and I respond, "I'm heading down to Taco Bell and buying me a Chalupa Supreme!  And a soda!"  That actually sounds kinda good right now.  Um, focus!

So yes, it's true that I don't have an actual vacation plan in place as of yet.  I am sure this gives some people with OCD tendencies the willies.  No plan?  You'll just squander your 37 days by sitting on on the couch, surfing the net and eating potato chips.  Fear not though, it's not like I am totally drifting in the wind like a dandelion seed.  There are some general ideas and themes and even a few actual events coalescing in my ever-roaming mind, like sprinkles of nutmeg in a mug of lukewarm eggnog that is starting to curdle.  Oh that sounds really good too.  You can tell I haven't had dinner yet.

Let's get down to brass tacks here.  I'll probably make a list of things I want to do.  That list will be fairly long.  I have a lot of hobbies.  Some of them include driving my sports cars, shooting my guns, taking interesting photos, eating great food.  So I will have a lot of goals that involve those things.  Will all of those things be interesting?  Perhaps not to the average person.  But they are immensely interesting to me, and that is what counts.  This blog will be my journal as I undertake this journey.  It might not always make sense to anyone else who isn't me.  I'm not here to impress you.  Well not entirely.  I'll do my best to entertain you if you take the time to read all this.  But really this journal is for me, so that I can later look back and remember what I did.  Because I might not ever get another chance to have so much "me" time again, at least not until I retire.


Remember in the movie Robocop, the protagonist had a set of prime directives, rules by which he had to abide or risk system shutdown?  Well let me set out a few prime directives right now that will guide my 37DaysOff.  Since I don't want to risk my own system shutdown, they will be, haha, fairly open ended.

1. Make myself a better person.
2. Make the world around me a better place.
3. Be creative.
4. (CLASSIFIED)

#5.  Find some lip balm ASAP.  Uh, never mind.

Who knows, maybe we will discover what directive #4 is along the way.  I might not achieve all of them every single day, but that can be a goal.  It should be interesting, I certainly hope it will be.

Because in the end I do believe that it is what you do, that defines who you are.
Let's begin.