My On-line Review of Death Race: DVD

I can't believe I get paid to do this!

Whirlwind of a Weekend

It was a four day weekend for us. Events included:

Thanksgiving with R.'s family (Thursday). Four hours became a six hour event.

D&D with friends on Friday. Six hour game became nine.

LA Auto Show with friends. Four hours became eight. Yikes!

Sunday was recovery day. Guess why....

2008 LA Auto Show

Back from covering the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show. General atmosphere/impression? One word:

Subdued.

More to follow.
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Carpe Diem (seize the day)

Feeling Fake

I like my job as an automotive blogger. There are days, though, that I feel like a fake.

Today was one of those days. One of my colleagues from Motor Trend brought one of the all-new Dodge Challengers to our office. While admiring its lines, both inside and out, I couldn't help but notice it was a stick shift.

I can't drive stick. Neither of my parents drove stick and it wasn't part of the driver's ed. Most folks in the U.S., in fact, can't drive stick.

But the auto industry is different. Just like how doctors can brag about being able to stay up three days/nights in a row without sleep, auto journalists and enthusiasts puff up their chests (and breasts) when they proudly declare they can drive a stick, prefer stick shift, and the only "real" driver is a stick driver. One journalist/exec, whom I admired, really brought that point home when he asked a tableful of journalists if they'd consider anyone in the industry who drove an automatic to be a true auto journalists. You can guess their answer.

Don't pity me. They have a point. I've already taken a few lessons from some of my colleagues and have researched driving schools. I will one day master the stick. Er, the one in a car, that is.

Twenty Three Hundred

Oh, my. Only one more post left.

so, how'd I do? Well, I discovered that my penchant for following multiple thoughts served me well in this experiment. If I had written down each one as a reminder and posted one each day, I could have easily filled a month or even more. All I have to do is think "what if...?" and bam! There's a post.

So what were some of those thoughts that crossed my mind? Well:

• What if I had sex with those co-workers whom I thought were attractive? What would we do? What would we say? And would I submit it to Penthouse?
• Why do I like Mazda cars so much?
• Superman is such a wuss. Here's why....
• Why normally smart gamers get stupid over 3.x versus 4E.
• G. should/shouldn't be a writer. (Here's why....)

Twenty

Ah, the things one does for one's spouse.

I got The Spouse to like fast food, specifically Del Taco. This is a result of my role-playings and coming home past midnight. You see, the only eatery (I hesitate to use that term) enroute home is a Del Taco drivethru.

Thus, you can imagine the line. Cars, SUVs, and in-betweens, filled with (primarily) bored high school and strung-up college students, all of us waiting for our turn at the disembodied voice to ask us (in a heavy Spanish accent): "please wait." Argh!

Then double that. One time they forgot my drink. Too exhausted to be angry, I went back into the line and waited as the teens in front of me pretended to be American Idol contestants. Course, they sounded more like rejects. I did flag one staff down as he was taking out the trash so that I received my drink quickly when I drove up to the all-too familiar window.

Anyway, enough background. I recently discovered the local Taco Bell to be a much shorter wait (i.e., no line). Unfortunately, The Spouse prefers Del Taco.

So what's a spouse to do? Sigh. I hope the line's not long tonight.
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Carpe Diem (seize the day)

Twelve Hours

One of my "faults" is that I, once I figure I like something, I can be quite obsessive about the new interest. The Spouse has seen it over and over: books, comic books, religion, cars, and role-playing games.

Now I'm interested in personal blogging as opposed to my blogger job. Today I'm going to generate one post per hour from noon until midnight. And these won't be half-arsed posts like a couple of sentences each. No, each will be at least four meaningful sentences.

So what will I be covering? Originally, I was going to cover what I did during my job. I decided finally that blogging about blogging was, well, kinda boring. Instead, I'll figure a topic at the spur of the moment. The Spouse always said I'm chockfull of ideas. Let's put that to the test, shall we?

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Carpe Diem (seize the day)