Fantasy Garage: M6

Car: 2009 BMW M6

Options: none

Price after options: $102, 925

I've been in love with this car ever since I first heard of it as a concept: sport tuned, V-10 engine, coupe, 2+2, BMW.  It was love at first sight.  Though it may not be the prettiest of all the BMWs on the road today, it certainly is one of the best and the GT car I would want to have...well, let's not get too far ahead of our selves.  

But this is still a great car!  Big engine, fast, German engineering.  Clearly I have so much to say about this particular vehicle.

I will say that to me what really sets the M6 apart from the rest is the complete disregard for engine size.  Sure there are other cars zipping around with turbo'd V8s and biturbo V12 (Mercedes I'm looking at you and all your ridiculousness), but the only popular cars to sport the nice round ten cylinder number are Lamborghini, BMW...and after searching everyone else the Porsche GT, which is no longer in production, comes to mind.  So when I was young and feeble minded I thought this was cool and unique.  500 hp and room for 4?  That's crazy I thought, I must have one.

So it stands that the M6 is the newest entry into my Fantasy garage: perfect handling, big engine, and two doors = fun times.

Money left in "Fantasy Garage Account": $344, 770

Oh I remember now!

So The Brewmiester, my friend, The Caow, and I were at dinner tonight and we were talking about movies and I mentioned that WALL-E was a great movie (which it is, you should all see it, it's the best date movie/rainy day movie/marathon movie, just an all around great movie) it is and The Brewmiester was just like, no.  The Caow and I then, passionately, defended WALL-E to The Brewmiester for half an hour, telling him it wasn't just a robot beeping the whole time and that it's actually one of the best films ever.  He just said no and refuses to see it, arguing Bolt is better.  Of course The Caow and I have never seen Bolt, but we would at least watch it upon The Brewmiester's recommendation.  The Brewmiester refuses to watch WALL-E on principle.  

How fracked up is that?

Day dreaming was more entertaining

So tomorrow I'm going over to my friend The K/T Boundary's house to watch Battlestar Galactica.  This is probably one of the best shows on tv.  It has action, and sci-fi, and human drama, and unlike some other sci-fi shows that have large thin plot arcs with mostly filler episodes, BSG (as most people call it) is constantly running within the plot, with very little filler.  Every episode is a cliff hanger and it the music is incredible.  I highly encourage you all to go out and buy the seasons on DVD and get caught up.  Because this show is worth it.  I can't wait until the series is over and my friends and I can sit down and watch the whole thing!

Also on the menu is deciding what I'm doing this summer/with my life and perhaps some fun apartment bonding.  Always fun, never boring.

There was something else I had thought of, but it currently escapes me at the moment.  Maybe if I just keep typing it'll come back to me...

Yeah, no that didn't work.

And now back to...

So yesterday I tried several times to create a new post, but the window would never open.  Which is why you all didn't get my awesome car related post yesterday.  This is unfortunate, but even more unfortunate is that I did not have my brain attached (left it in its jar) and didn't jot down my thoughts in a word doc.

So no car post, sorry.

Fun thing that's been happening to me lately that hasn't happened since freshman year: long dinners.  Ever since I've been going to dinner with my new housemates and their friends, we have stayed and just chilled and talk for a long time.  It's a lot of fun.  I intend to do this more often.

So many left-overs

So I went out to dinner tonight with my friend The Stroke and we split a pizza.  Simple enough right?  Until I get home and The Brewmiester says we're all going out for Thai.  Me say no to good food and friends?  Never!  So we pile into my friend Eighty's car with The Kart and off we were.  Morale of the story: good food followed by good food is always a good choice.  Just like diverse word choice can be good from time to time.

So today begins the first full week of classes and it turns out the assignment i was up late last night doing was optional.  Clearly I missed the memo, but there is a special place in heaven for those who do work they don't have to.

Also, I haven't learned the time management thing, but i might get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight so that is a plus...right?  Fun post related to cars tomorrow, since I have yet to touch everything that is going on in the auto industry, and there is just too much to let it all sit without my published opinion.

That makes things so much easier

So now that it is almost 3 in the morning, and I have finished and handed in my work I'm not tired.  This is clearly just a momentary laps and I will pass out at my keyboard any minute, but I felt obligated to make up for the lack of a post on Sunday.  I wish I could say I was resting, but it was more of a working/procrastination/reading thing.

The party on Saturday was fun though.  No baked goods from The Baker, but tons of ordered pizza, which made for a great 2am snack.  And speaking of great things: The Brewmiester's sleeping habits.  There were 6 of us sharing The Baker's living room, with The Brewmiester and I sleeping on a nicely sized twin-esque mattress.  This isn't a problem for me because I sleep like the dead: I don't move and I make very little noise.  Turns out The Brewmiester is the same way, which made sharing the mattress that much easier.  Everyone commented the next morning that if it wasn't for the fact we woke up the next morning, they would have thought we were dead.  

All in all it was a fun filled weekend, but now it is time to buckle down and relearn that all important skill of time management!

Like a bomb hit it

Needless to say the party went off splendidly.  Lots of fun people showed up such as The B-flat and The All-Nighter to name a few.  

However...

The apartment this morning eoitomized the term "Morning after."  Luckily I did some cleaning before going to bed, but every flat, horizontal surface was covered with sticky liquid and/or wet suff.  It wasn't that bad to mop up, especially when you are the one providing moral support!

The Bremiester and I are about to head out to my friend The Baker's birthday party.  It should be a good time since she is pulling all the stops in terms of funding for this shin-dig.  Two parties in one weekend...life is good, except for the massive amounts of reading I will have to do tomorrow.  But that is a problem for future me!  Present me is looking forward to some good times, laughs, and hopefully some really yummy food.  She doesn't have the name for nothing!

Fanatsy Garage: Corvette

Car: 2009 Corvette

Options: Z51 Performance Package, Dual Mode Exhaust

Price after options: $52, 305

First car in the garage is American!  Who woulda guessed?  But seriously folks, the Corvette is the real deal.  In terms of bang for your buck, a phrase that is used world over to describe the Corvette, you can't do much better.  436 hp and 428 lb-feet of torque for around 50k, and probably less in this economy.

I admit I was tempted to go with the Z06 model, but with the two option boxes I checked, the extra expense just didn't make sense.  This car turns my head every time I see it on the highway or around town.  I feel it is such an improvement, design wise, over the C5 Corvette.  It was, is, and will always be one of the most iconic American sports cars ever.

Not to mention that I would totally use it as a daily driver.  Sporting the most advanced Chevy small block V8 in history, this car will easily return mpg's in the mid-twenties and still tear it up on the track during the day and cruise the main drive at night.

Money left in "Fantasy Garage Account": $447, 695

Movie Review: Gran Torino

I saw this movie sorta on a whim and I am so glad I did.  The movie is Clint Eastwood at his best.  He plays a Korean War Vet. whose wife has just passed and lives alone in a mostly South East Asian community that had at one point been a Ford factory town.  He catches his next door neighbor trying to steal his (beautiful) 1972 Ford Gran Torino.  He then starts working for Clint to repay his debt.

This movie was great and very cleverly critiqued modern society.  It explores what the youth culture has devolved into and what values have been lost in the last half century.  There are ways in which we have moved forward.  Clint's character and the youths in the movie stand juxtaposed as to what we've lost (self sufficiency, common courtesy, fraternity among men) and what we've gained (acceptance of many cultures and becoming less racist).

This was a great movie, and truly stands as an example of the world we live in and the one that we have left behind.

Wait, but that's not what you said?!

So I give my dear friend, The Roommate, a call and ask him if he is coming to the party The Brewmiester and I are having.  His answer: no.  I'm a little bummed, since he's pretty much one of my best friends and since he's going abroad I won't see him for a while, but shit happens, life goes on.

He then texts me 4 hours later saying he's on his way to my apartment...huh?  What?!  That's not what you said 4 hours ago?!  But I'm not complaining.  It's partially a send off for him anyway, but be consistent dude.  

In other news, I had an amazing sandwich for lunch today.  It didn't come with a pickle, which was annoying because the book store cafe only give pickles out if you are eating in, but what ever.  It was an Italian combo with peperoni and salami and mozzarella cheese.  It was kinda awesome if I do say so myself.  A little olive oil, heated a bit, it was fantastic, but not as fantastic as my personal favorite: honey ham, salami, peperoni, provolone, melted/heated on a grinder roll with extra mayo.  Mmmmmmmmmmm, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.  

Also, I would like to take some more time to thank my wonderful mother for my previous post's error: my professors are not jerks.  They are all really cool and excited for the semester and really into the material they are teaching us.  It is really great to be in a major with professors who really REALLY love what they're doing.

Out of the oven

Fewh!  I was able to get all the classes I wanted with no harm to my minor.  Thank the gods!  I am, however, taking three lab classes this semester which means I will have to really work hard, but I can totally do this.  I am really interested in the material.  I know the people in my classes.  The professors aren't jerks.  And even though I haven't had all of my classes yet this week, I am feeling naively optimistic.  It won't be a walk in the park at all, but I should come out the other end in good shape.

Now enough of this mopey "university is hard" bs, and let me introduce some of the cast of characters in my life...

Yesterday my last house mate The Kart showed up so now it's me, The Kart, The Scrum, and the Brewmiester.  While The Brewmiester and I were out celebrating the last night of vacation Monday, I (in my most solid, and infinite wisdom) began telling everyone that we were going to throw a party on Friday and by the end of the night everything was in place except the invitations.  Funny part was, I advertised it as me and The Brewmiester's party, so people having been coming up to The Brewmiester and telling him that they are going to make it to his party on Friday or that they want to be invited to his party.

So, note to the files folks: when you volunteer someone to host a party t with you, it's probably a good idea to let them know they are one of the hosts.  Lucky for me he's a great guy and game for it (which is good cause it's our apartment that it's being hosted in), but next time I'll let him know about it more in advance than after I have sent out the invites.  Oops!

Note: thanks mom for reading over and catching my errors.

Leap from the Lion's Head

Well, I woke up super early today, 8:30, so I can try and see if i can put a plan into action.  There is this English class I signed up for and I really have no desire to take it.  It having a 20 page final research paper also kicks some of the wind out of my sails.  After talking to my friends The Shrink and The Piano Man, I was feeling a bit better about taking the course and decided that, like prunes, it would be good for me even though it would be unpleasant.

Then I talked to my friend The Stage and my housemate The Brewmiester and they were...supportive, but shared my reservations.

In the end, of course, I have realized that there is a way out!  There is another course taught by the Professor that I'm doing research with that I wanted to take, but didn't have room for.  It would mean I would be taking 3 labs this semester, but labs I can do.  Weekly reading responses and English research papers...what are those?  

So I woke up early to see if I can check with the head of my minor to see if I can take a different course instead of the English one and still complete my minor.  If yes, my professor's course starts at 10 so I need to be up.  If no, then...well, getting up early is good for you???

Well, here's to seeing if this penitent man will pass!

Movie Review: Leon

Whoa guys, this one was something else.  Truly an excellent action movie, but also an excellent film.  The film follows Leon, played expertly by Jean Reno, a hit man for the mafia who one day takes in 12 year-old Matilda, played by a 12 year-old Natalie Portman, whose family was just knocked off by a bunch of crooked DEA agents.  She convinces Leon to teach her the trade and they bond.  Leon, always the professional, keeps her at a distance and out of his dangerous work, but she keeps pushing him to let her work with him.

The movie that this reminded me of was Taxi Driver, in the sense that you have a young girl coming on to an older man.  Matilda's character is a bad mouth, but very mature and she constantly makes advances towards Leon, who is smarter than that.  The relationship they have though is very touching and never gets creepy like it seems it will.  

This was a great movie that has something everyone can enjoy and appreciate from the action scenes, to the development of Leon from the cold hit man into a more human being.

Movie Review: Bloodsport

So ridiculous.  Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of the coolest martial arts movies ever.  The story focuses on the Kumite: the ultimate, full contact martial arts fight where the best of the best of the world are invited to compete.  But like a lot of martial arts/action movies the plot isn't the important part..it's all about the action!

One of the really unique things about the movie is that it was able to feature many different types/styles of martial arts which made the movie more interesting than just the same fight with people in different clothes.  Because of the different styles you got to, peripherally, see how each fighter reacted to the other's style.  Really a neat movie with many well shot fighting scenes and, of course, excellent use of slow motion.

I would recommend it for any martial arts/action movie fan.  It's not great cinema, but that's not really why you go to see an action movie.  It does what it is supposed to do and does it well.

Movie Review: Mississippi Burning

This was a great film.  Excellent acting by William Defoe and Gene Hackman.  The story centers around the disappearance of 3 civil rights student activists in a small Mississippi town.  Two FBI agents are sent in to investigate and their investigation soon turns into a media spectacle as violence against the African-American community escalates.  The movie really captured the many sides of "the South" during 1964 in Mississippi.

It is a reminder of how bigoted and full of hate people were and how looking back it seems so silly and childish now.  Hopefully we can continue to move forward towards greater equality, because in the end we are all human.

Fantasy Garage

The folks over at Jalopnik have for some time now been running a "Fantasy Garage."  It seems that any self-proclaimed car nut has one in their head, and it is through these that we start to get a picture of each other.  Some go for vintage German cars like the first Prosche 911 model, others classic pre-War cars of the 30's and 20's, and still others will fill their chock full of every exotic that has been on the market for the last decade.

I'm going to take a slightly different approch.  Though these lists always have excellent cars, they tend to lean heavy on the "fantasy" side of the spectrum.  For example: sure everyone would have a Mclaren F1 LM in their fantasy garage, but how would one go about doing that?  As such, I am going to bring the fantasy a little bit closer to earth by placing a total price cap for the garage.

Let us say...$500,000.00?  A nice round number, but then i could have two quarter million dollar cars and call it a day...so the additional catch is that there always has to be at least 10 cars in the garage (the magic number for all lists).  To make sure I don't cheat I'll pull prices direct from the company websites and I will be honest with my self and get the options I want, because no one needs matching lugage with their Bentley Continental Flying Spur, but you sure do want them!

I'll pick the cars on Fridays and after ten weeks...well, let's get there first!

Welcome to my Blog

This is my blog about my life here at university and beyond.  I will mainly be using it for...well, I haven't yet decided on what.  At first I was going to use it to blog my thoughts about cars based off of some of my favorite automotive related blogs, but then I started reading webcomics.  I found them to be hilarious and there were certainly times in my life that were equally funny and notable.  So this blog will be about..me.  My interests.  My stories.  My life.  And most importantly my random thoughts!

Every blog, however, needs to have a gimmick; something that makes it unique.  Some have lists (which are soooo much fun that I can't resist doing them), some have neat memes (a word to which i still haven't figured out the definition no matter how many times i read it over on Wiki), and some are told entirely in pictures or videos.  Mine will include stories about my friends that I'm sure they might not want repeated.  So to protect them and probably my physical well being i will create nick names for all of my friends.  For those of you who know me and my friends, it should be pretty easy to figure out, though I hope not too easy.  For the rest of you, enjoy the antics...

So here goes my journey into the world of blogging.  Wish me luck!