Respectable-News-Jizz-Grossness

Not an especially interesting article, but the WSJ is either completely oblivious or really gross in using the phrase "pop-artist-cum-call-girl." Don't use the word "cum" in news articles about prostitutes. Ever.

Down on the Street

It's come to mind a couple times while I ride to work that I should bring a camera with me to take pictures of the eclectic cars that are along Alameda de las Pulgas. Today I realized I could have my own version of the Jalop's "Down on the Street" with the number of obscure classic (read: early malaise) cars I bike past. To start, though, I'll just try to do a brief summary until I get more info and pictures.

Datsun 510 Wagon
This baby's lowered, front duckbill spoiler, and in really good shape. 510s are rare enough, but a wagon? Tasty.

Opel 1900 Wagon
I think my parents used to have an Opel before I was born. Certainly don't see too many of them except Astras. Oh wait, that's a "Saturn."

Some small MG under a cover
I'll need to research more as to which random assembly of letters follow MG on this one, but it looks smaller and older than an MGB. Project car hell indeed.

Yugo GV
This thing is CLEAN. Like the Opel, just not a marque you see around very often. The first time I rode past it my brain signaled "Rabbit" but there are subtle differences. It's in incredible shape, nice white paint with lines, clean wheels. Looks taller than a Rabbit. Who do you get to work on a Yugo these days?

Then, approaching work in SF:
Chevy Nomad
White with green front/lines into the doors. Reminds me of the old one my Uncle Pat, Chevyphile extraordinaire, had, except his was all black and silver for the Raiders (natch). I should do a post all on his cars. They are worthy. I'm still trying to convince him to donate his '56 Bel Air "Fire Chief" sedan to me.

Jalopnik

Jalopnik made a post today about accepting applications for jobs and interns.  

All they asked for was blog URLs.

I've just recently restarted this blog, and the only blog I've done that's really full is my one about rowing 2 summers ago.

Jalops, if you read this, here's my shameless self-promotion:

I've been reading Road and Track since 4th grade, and now have 3 car mag subscriptions.

I have Jalopnik on an RSS feed and read every post, every day.

I'm a Stanford graduate and enjoy writing.

I work for a luxury reports website and do writing, analysis, and business development.

I like wagons.

I like the Big Lebowski.

I like engine swaps.

I like obscure cars.

People I know look to me (laugh at me?) for car information/knowledge.

I should work for Jalopnik.

Oh yeah, all I think about is cars.

You're not wrong, Walter. You're just an asshole.

I bike to work most days.  It makes me feel good, it gives me a way to work out without taking a couple hours out of my evenings, which already feel short.  False logic or not, it makes me feel a little less guilty for rocking the truck and its <20>Which brings me to the main point of this.  As I bike to and from work, I see lots of different cars.  Exotics, lots of trucks, even a few NORMAL cars here and there.  I don't love the jacked up Chevy and Ford trucks, I feel like they are pretty silly.  But they don't elicit the disdain when I see any iteration of Hummer.  An H3 drove by, a black one with miscellaneous stickers across the back window.  I couldn't help but think "fuck you, car."  People know what Hummers stand for, and he intentionally chose it for that.  It doesn't have the off-roading capability of an H2, let alone the H1.  It has a piece of shit inline-5 that gets bad gas mileage and contributes to generally mediocre car in every sense except those in which it's just terrible.  

In retrospect, though, I wonder:  Am I in any place to judge?  Yes, I'm on my bike, which means I can even accuse Prius drivers of being gas-hogging earth-killers (and sometimes I do, just for fun), but the car I own is a truck, and sometimes I borrow the family's Yukon XL.  So am I being a hypocrite?  I'd like to think not; my truck was bought out of utility and holds a different aura, whereas I see any Hummer as being bought purely to be a prick.

Hmm.

Car vs. Savings

I have found myself embroiled in the personal struggle previously restricted to the "older guys'" blog posts, articles, gripings that I used to read about dropping all of their money into cars.  Before, I was but a wee lad, appreciative of the 80s Toyota truck I had at my disposal for high school and the road bike I had in college.  Cars were but a dream; my reality of being a negative-money-producing student kept pragmatic thoughts of buying cars away.  However, I now have a "real" job.  I no longer drop Serbia's GDP on education each year.  I get a paycheck, and not all of it goes to food and rent.  Thus, thoughts of cars, REAL cars, real ones that are mine, not just dreams of M3 donuts on YouTube, have come into my head.  EbayMotors has become my favorite pastime.  Calculations of how much money I'll have when juxtaposed to how much E30s are selling for constantly clog my neurons.

So what am I going to do?  My girlfriend offers the ultra-pragmatic viewpoint of saving my money for housing/life/etc.  Her mom, exhibiting the kind of happiness-seeking rarely found in older adults, thinks I should get a car because it would make me happy.  My parents trust me to make my own decisions, and my brother would enjoy stories of my hooning, jalopy purchasing, and general car stories almost as much as I would experiencing them.

My housing will cost more as of this summer.  But I feel like that will work out.  Either way, I'll probably have plans A, B, and C for my "fun" car to supplement the indestructible '88 Toyota truck.

Plan A:

E30 M3

Goddamn these things are expensive.  I could get an E36, 8-10 years younger, for the same price.  And while E36s give me warm memories of Byron's dad's "Blue Car," what's the point if I can't have box fenders?  Also, do I shoot for a slightly lesser one, perhaps with more mileage or less-than-perfect exterior, and just accept that it will be a project car, eventually doing a Turner Motor Sports 2.5 Evo upgrade, knowing this will be a work in progress and it's ok to start lower on the ladder?  Or do I go balls out and try to find one under 100k miles and expect to recoup the arm and leg in slightly fewer maintenance costs?  Yikes.

Plan B:

A1 GTI or Rabbitamino

The affordable solution, as always.  A good starting point, probably for 1/5 of the M3's cost, would be fun to strip and rally-out.  With fond memories of our '81 Rabbit Pickup, I would love to have a fun, intentionally beater old VW.  Cheaper and easier to work on but with high enjoyment potential, this would be a more rational way to go.

Plan C:

Save money

The M3 would require some of this anyways.  The whole idea (I guess) of this plan is that I'll be able to have MORE fun later if I have LESS fun now because, if I invest wisely and live frugally, my money will compound and allow me to live out my wildest dreams (except the one with the elves and the donkey).  Obviously the most boring one, it would kind of keep me stuck where I've been for the past 22 years: dreaming of cars for the future with no imminent plans of doing anything about it.

The endless struggle, now directly in my face.  I doubt it will end soon.

Devil

I don't aim to write much on politics, enough space is used/wasted/shat upon regarding that topic, but I saw this on NYT.com...

Seriously, does this not look like the devil?

Be less scary, devil-woman.

DB9 Morning

I'm not sure yet how boring car posts will get; they will inevitably be more boring for the reader than for me, as for the past 14 years my tolerance for repetitive information on cars has seemed inexhaustible.  Though increasingly common, I aim to never allow sightings of amazing automobiles to be boring or overlooked.  If I saw a DB9 on Bainbridge, I'd ogle and drool and probably poop myself.  Thus, I feel that should not change just because I'm in dreamlandWoodside.

Thus, as I biked down the Woodside hill today a gorgeous silver DB9 coupe drove by.  I should make a tally or something.

And to catch up a little, recent sightings included a dark on light silver Bugatti Veyron (wtf?!), and this weekend while I got my 1988 Toyota Truck smogged, a silver/blue Murcielago drove by, followed by a silver F430 Spyder.  Tasty.

Trying Again

I think I'm going to try the blogging thing again.  I almost started this summer but was so frustrated by the triteness of my first post that I gave up immediately.  The post is still there but I deleted the content... it was short, about driving a Quattroporte, and I just didn't like it.

Anyways, there are things going on, in life and the world, that I think will be fun to write about.  In the original vein of this blog, I still see ridiculous cars each day in Woodside and that's fun to write about.  Music still shapes a considerable part of my days, so perhaps there will be some of that.  Then there's the overarching stage of my life, which is me doing my best acting job at being real person, i.e. getting a "real" job in San Francisco and probably starting to look at renting apartments in the city soon.  Luckily I still have some "fake" parts of life, like being extremely blessed and having the opportunity to live in Woodside for now with a fun and caring family, a great little place to myself, and homecooked meals.

So perhaps this will start off a bit picaresque and eclectic, and it may stay that way or it may follow a natural path towards definition.  I will probably do the same, either staying random and half in dream world half in the real world, flow fully towards one, or (most likely) land somewhere in between it all.