Test Drive Shinnanigans

So it has been a while since I’ve posted. Anywho. Lately I’ve been contemplating getting rid of my 2008 Nissan Rogue SL awd. Known to my g/f as the ‘hippo.’ It is an adequate nickname for it, so it is charcoal/gray like a hippo….kinda roundish….and if you squint just right and the stars are aligned perfectly, it just might look like a hippo.

The payment on it is ridiculous so I set out on a quest to find myself a potential replacement vehicle, should I be able to get rid of this wallet busting bill of a vehicle.

I do my research like usual. I’m definitely a Nissan guy. I owned a 1995 240sx (loved that car to death, wish I still had my S14), a 2006 Nissan Frontier LE Crew Cab (R.I.P…..the ex totalled it), and now the Hippo. SO I venture over to Nissan’s website and peruse their compact cars, namely the Sentra and the Versa. I definitely like the sentra. I proceed to look at my local dealers for a used 2007 or newer Sentra SE-R SpecV. I wanted the 6-speed and this had it as well as 200hp. =)

I find one in my price range. I then proceed to call my friend to ask him to tag along, he agrees, I go and pick him up and off to Pacific Nissan we go.

We arrive and surprisingly are NOT ambushed by an excessive amount of salesmen the second we set foot on the premises. We walk over to the used/preowned vehicle section. We find the vehicle we came to see and then get approached by the most passive car salesman I’ve ever met.

New Grip on Life!

Well as you 10’s of people who have read my blog know, I ride a motorcycle. I LOVE my motorcycle, its a major part of my life. However this past week or so has not been that spectacular at all. During work I sprained or pinched a nerve in my right wrist. It sucked. I could not bend my wrist w/o a lot of pain.

As fellow riders know, the right hand is your throttle hand. I didnt let this stop me from riding, but it wasn’t as fun as it usually is simply because I couldn’t snap the throttle back as quickly as I would have liked when I needed or wanted to. So I came to the conlsuion that possibly my motorcycle grips were transferring too much road and engine vibration to my hands thus causing some of the discomfort. I mean think about it, on a bike you are basically on a engine with wheels. No real engine mounts to absorb the vibrations like on a car.

Luckily this past fathers day my own father treated me to a gift card to my local bike shop. I went and spent it on oil change supplies and a new set of grips. They are ProGrip 717’s in black/gray and look like so. These aren’t mine because I was too lazy to take pics.

Well install was easy, after a little air compressor trick I learned. Went for a ride the next day and as expected there was still some vibrations, but not nearly as bad as it was before with the factory grips.

Overall I’m happy with my new grips, they weren’t an arm and a leg and they look cool. Which we all know ‘cool looking’ parts adds 10hp to any vehicle.

Motorcycle Madness Part Deux!

So I’ve been riding for some time now. Roughly 3 Years now. I’ve logged in nearly 16,000 miles on my cbr600rr and it runs just as strong as the day I got it. You may be asking, where does one ride that often? Well I’ll be honest…it’s my commuter and joy-ride all at the same time. I ride it to work as often as possible and on the weekends I like to go out for a nice ride out on the windy roads.

Probably the most common ride I do, whether it be me and a riding buddy or just me and my g/f, but I like going out and riding down the old highway 94 here in San Diego. Its a relatively easy ride, lots of trees and grassy hills and most importantly…lots of nice curves =). I usually get out there once a month just to ride and have lunch at the old Barret Junction Cafe. They have the best fried cod fish fry that I know of, not to mention their hushpuppies are to die for.

Hope some fellow San Diegans can make it out with us the next time we go! Ride safe everyone!

(Can you find my bike? It’s hiding behind all the choppers hehe)

Star Wars Madness!

So as I sit here and type this, I’m staring at my son’s new Star Wars Clone Wars throw blanket. And I think…how incredible this Star Wars franchise is. I mean if we look back it has actually survived three generations of my family. The movies for episode 4,5, and 6 came out when my dad was in his teens. The movies for episodes 1,2, and 3 came out when I was in my late teens. And now my son, who just turned 6, has seen all 6 movies numerous times, the new clone wars movie multiple times and religiously watches the Clone Wars cartoon any chance he can get. Does he like Star Wars? HELL YES! There isn’t a day that I spend with him that he doesn’t mention it one way or another.

I mean this just goes to show how big of a phenomenon the Star Wars franchise is. From their Legos, to the movies. I love their Legos and so does my son lol. Still havent finished building all the ones he has yet, but he builds them himself…and he’s just turned 6 and he builds the ones for 10+, which makes me real happy =).  Must have a good teacher. *wink wink*

I mean what isn’t cool about a Lego Darth Vader?

May the force be with you!

Motorcycle Madness!

I like motorcycles. They are crazy cool.  I always thought that they were badass but never considered getting one due to the fact that I live in Southern California. Yes I know, we have probably the best weather in the country here in San Diego. But its a fact that we also have some of the worst drivers EVER roaming the streets and freeways.

Why did I get a bike you may be asking yourself? Well at the time I was commuting roughly 30 miles to work 5 days a week in my 2006 Nissan Frontier which got a whopping 16city and 20hwy. This was also around the time gas was $4 or more. Basically I was spending a retarded amount of money on gas.  Not to mention my co-worker’s kept telling me how cool and fun it was to ride, they rocked a Honda CBR1000rr and a Suzuki GSX-r1000.

A Bomb of Sorts

So if you were to know me in real life, you’d know that I am not one to indulge or frequent an alcoholic beverage. In fact,  I could honestly say that my alcohol intake was a total of maybe 1 a year. That however has changed as of late. I still don’t understand the ‘need’ or ‘necessity’ to drink. Maybe there isn’t one…but I’m slowly acquiring a taste or at least the knowledge about the popular habit.

Last night my g/f and I attended her co-workers birthday party at a local Sushi bar, PB Sushi. When you are in San Diego, you can literally throw a rock at the next sushi bar there are so many in certain parts of town, namely Pacific Beach or Clairemont. Anyhow back on track. So we go and its $1.00 Sake Bomb Monday. I have heard of this drink, but have yet to try it.  We order a round and I have no idea what to expect or think. So far up to this point in my time on this earth my alcohol experiences have included a margarita, vodka tonic (mmm), washington apple, rum & coke, a few select beers and some random shots. I have had sake before, warm and cold, and enjoy it more than I do enjoy any other alcoholic beverage I have ventured to try up to this point in my life.  Still haven’t acquired a taste as to what I truly like besides sake and a vodka tonic or anything that resembles anything citrus, but I’m sure time will tell and point me in the right direction.

The Sake bombs finally arrive. To those non-drinkers like yours truly a sake bomb is a two part drink (Sake Bomb) consisting of 1 glass of beer and 1 shot of warm sake. They arrive, and I have no clue wtf is going on. The bday girl looks at me and goes ‘never had a sake bomb? whoa…’ I shake my head like usual when asked the infamous ‘never had a ___?’ question. We grab both beverages, cheers to her bday and proceed to drink. I watch and notice that I’m supposed to drop the sake in the beer, do so, and down the drink.

All I can say….is DAMN. It went down so easy and tasted fanfreakingtastic. Basically now I know of a drink that I actually can be like ‘I’ll take one of those’ and know I’ll enjoy it. I guess this is just one of the many favored drinks to come in my life. Thank you PB Sushi for a fantastic monday night!

Technological Addiction

So basically, I was starring at my phone and reminiscing about the days when I didn’t have this technological wonder. I mean I got my first cell phone back in 1999, before Cingular changed to AT&T (2007ish), and before AT&T changed to Cingular (2002ish), I started when they were PacBell. It was a Motorola Startac as seen here

It was the smallest phone available at the time AND had caller ID! However, the caller ID was worthless because you had to open the phone to see the number….which meant you answered the call. Maybe there was a setting to not auto-answer…but I did not know how to change, so maybe I was the worthless one LOL.

Anyhow, since then I have had roughly 4 phones (Nokia 8890, Samsung flip, Sony w550 and Sony W580.) They have all done me well and I do not regret having any of them. Now thanks to my darling g/f I have upgraded to one of the most techno-savvy phones out on the market, the iPhone! This is the 1st phone that I have owned that required me to get a data plan, since I never used the internet on my previous non-smart phones. However it is mandatory for the iPhone, but now I surf the internet, Blog it up, rock out to Pandora, LMAO at youtube, gchat with friends and email like crazy because it is all at my fingertips.

So it came to me just how dependent or attached to my phone I was when my 3g network was down the other day. I mean I couldn’t check emails, check the weather, read online comics, blogs….nothing. Luckily I could still call the people I wanted to talk to, but I swear I was naked w/o it and it was like I was cut off from the world of data. I was totally going through withdrawals, checking to see if my little ‘3g’ icon had popped up literally ever 5 minutes. Just imagine how naked you feel when you forget your phone  completely.

Which brings me to my final point, it totally brings into perspective why my parents always wanted me to call them whenever I got home or to my friends house or wherever the destination was…it was because I didn’t have this life-line or technological leash if you will, buried in my pocket or attached to my hip. Not knowing where your children or friend or family member or significant others was on a completely different level 10+ years ago. Now its just a matter of texting,  facebooking, myspacing, emailing or calling to get the 411 or location of that loved one.  Scary how attached we are, how necessary this small piece of technology is, and how much cell phones have affected our day to day lives as a society. Who knows what the technological future brings…flying cars? killer robots? Only time will tell.

Hello world!

Hello WORLD! This is my sad attempt at a Blog. Wonder if people will find interest in the funny mind-things that go through my head as I post them online for the world to see? Well off to think of things to consider to write about…I may not be poetic or a natural writer like some…but there will definitely be something to read about. Enjoy!