Day 37: time waits for no one

So this is it... the last day of my vacation.  Day 37.

Let me quickly talk about what I did the last few days, the first week of 2013.
We counted down the end of 2012 and welcomed 2013 in the warm and cozy comfort of our own home, accompanied by our families and no small amount of food.

You can see how thrilled I am about this meal.  I loves me some crab!

I ate way more than I probably should.  And since Christmas I haven't been exercising as much as I should be.  The good news is I went to get some more blood tests recently and the results came back fairly normal.  That's probably what pushed me over the edge to even more gluttony.  "The doctor says I'm fine!  Another round of bacon cheeseburgers!"  I didn't make any new years resolutions because I think it's a poor vehicle for change or self improvement.  You don't just commit to good health once a year.  You see everyone hitting the gym for the first week of January and then it's all back to normal, people fall off the wagon after that.  So I will do what I can to get back on the wagon and continue what I started last year.

I found a replacement wheel for my Lexus IS350.  It was not cheap, I probably could have bought a whole new set of knockoff wheels for the price of this one wheel.  But JDM authenticity has its price, and I do like this rare discontinued wheel a lot.  So I guess it was worth it.  Shot out to AutoRnD in Fremont, who is the North American distributor for AME/Enkei wheels, for taking care of me.

Wheels, glorious wheels!

Back to its former glory.

Did a bit of gaming this past week as well.  My gamer friend Ken came over and we had ourselves a serious LAN party gaming marathon.  We played some Saints Row 3, the first 2 episodes of the Walking Dead game series, and some Starcraft 2 all on our PCs.  I also have been playing some Battlefield 3 and Sleeping Dogs on PS3. 

I want all the data we have on Jason Bourne, on screen one!

Surprisingly I haven't been playing much Gran Turismo 5 lately, but perhaps that is because I've been doing a fair amount of real driving.  No need for the virtual when you're living it up out in the real world.  

Yesterday I went out to the range and did some more shooting with my .22 rifle.  Started out well but then it got cold and windy, and my shots started going all over the place on the target.  So I called it a day and went home where my honey was making a nice hot bowl of pho noodle soup to warm up.

One last thing.  I got my new spoiler painted and installed on Stitch, by RJ's Paint Shop in Pleasanton. Super nice guys there and they did a great job.  At this point I think the cosmetic tweaks to my car are just about done.  Time to just drive it and enjoy it for a while.

That's all I have time to cover for now.  I guess I will have to come back and do a final conclusion piece, but I'll need some time to reflect on the past 37 days and close this thing down proper.  

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. :)