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....

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.

Midnight -- Zero Hour

Well, I did it. I wrote twelve posts in one day.

Or is it thirteen? It doesn't matter. I'll tell you now it wasn't particularly onerous. But then, I had no particular goal in mind except to see if I could pull it off. Think of twelve topics? Check. Write one per hour? Check. I'm not particularly aiming for an audience which seems to be the goal for most bloggers. That's already a job requirement, something I don't want to bring in this second go-around with Words, Weights, Whatever.

Can I tell you a little secret? I started this blog back in 2002 because of -- gasp! -- old age. Or what I thought of the time as old age. You see, every time someone asked what I had done that particular weekend or day, I kept forgetting. I kid you not. Fearing I was suffering some sorta early dementia, I started the blog as a simple reminder of all the things I do/did in my life. Things, of course, didn't work out that way and which I'm forever grateful.

Do I still think I have dementia? Here's another secret. People who don't have dementia think they have it.

Eighteenth Hour

How long have you been on your own?

I've never lived on my own. I've always either had a roommate or, more often, lived with a lover. My siblings, on the other hand, have dwelled by themselves at some point in their lives.

I sometimes wonder if I missed something from the lack of solo experience, of being responsible to myself and no one else. What would it have been like, for example, to come home to a place that's all mine? Or to bring a date/fling and say, "here's my place"? Is it as lonely as everyone says it is? Note that folks who use such replies often are either looking for a relationship or are bitter in their solitude.

I wonder if I would found contentment in a solo situation? I often claim I'm a loner, but I wonder sometimes if it's true. Yes, I can easily get lost into a book or show. But I also enjoy the company of friends, and I know I get stir crazy when it's a Friday night and there's no one to talk with.

Hmmm. Time for nap.
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Carpe Diem (seize the day)

Seventeenth Hour

Lust.

That's how I feel every summer. I've noted the feeling for some time now; making a mental note where my eyes look, what my thoughts are, and where my hands go (over The Spouse, of course).

Is it the sun? Nah. See that pretty much every day here in SoCal. Food? Or the number of good-lookin' folks suddenly shedding as much clothing as decently possible to enjoy the former while avoiding the latter? I think it's both factors plus hormones and lots of it.

So, where am I going with this post? I enjoy the feeling. There would have been a time I would have mentally suppressed them, thinking that I had issues with my relationship. Nothing could be further from the truth. Now, it's an entirely different matter if I acted on said emotions. The feeling though...is just a feeling. Like the wind, the surf, and indigestion, the feeling, too, shall past.
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Carpe Diem (seize the day)

Fifteenth Hour

My eyeballs feel like boiled eggs.

That's a problem when you work in front of a computer all day. Information --specifically, written information -- is your "product" day in and day out. All my blog posts, my team's posts, blog images, and communication are always in front of an Alt-tab away.

There's no letup, especially in this day and age. "Information overload" is a real issue for many of us in media. I spent a good half-hour to sometimes an hour each working day both in email and the Internet culling the so-called wheat from the chaff(?) to find my diamonds in the rough auto news. I post between 15 to 26 new posts a day during the week. That's a lot of diamonds to find. Then there all these images....

But here's the "sad" thing. You know what I do when I get home? Yup, that's right. After a brief nap, I boot up my laptop and start the process all over again but with new topics (e.g., personal blog posts, rpgs, news, etc.) I hope that, one day, we'll have artificial eyes, for I can see (get it?) that I'm going to need them.
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Carpe Diem (seize the day)

Fourteenth Hour

"It's your blog".

That's what G. said when I asked him a few minutes ago if it was time for another blog. The sharp response provoke the following topic.

Does one write posts for an audience or oneself? That's an extremely common question many bloggers ask themselves and even their readers. Who (or is it whom?) is one writing for? Since I write blog posts for pay, I'm in an interesting position to see both sides of the question.

And my opinion? It's both, naturally. I consider blog posts similar to short stories, novels, comic books, and any other auditory/visual medium (e.g., paper, webpage, podcasts, etc.) where an author tells/writes their thoughts so others can experience it. Posts, on the one hand, can be read by almost anyone depending on the permissions given (or how skilled is the hacker). If the blogger truly wanted to keep things for themselves, they wouldn't be publishing their posts.

On the other hand, bloggers need a source to tap for their topic and that's themselves. Yes, one can give a blogger a subject matter to write about, but their viewpoint, writing style, etc., is theirs -- and theirs alone. The blogger decides how much of themselves they're willing to bare not only to their readers, but themselves as well. As G. above recently said, he hates re-reading his reviews, something he shares with all writers. That's understandable, for every time one writes their thoughts down, they give something of their thoughts and hearts, which is not always pleasant to look in the stark light of reality.


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Carpe Diem (seize the day)

Outside Looking In

Last night I joined friends C., G, and R. (not The Spouse) at a local restaurant.

A little background here. C. and G. have been meeting almost regularly once a week at said restaurant. Both used to do volunteer duty at this center. We'd meet at the center, then move over to the restaurant where we'd chat over the latest dramas, movies, and books. At one point, we actually formed an impromptu reading group, selecting a book a month to read and discuss the next month. That has fallen by the wayside as new interests have taken their place.

R.'s is G.'s old roommate and currently lives in his old digs after G. moved out. All three maintain contact with each other, especially C. and G., who used to regularly attend the Happiest Place on Earth for Years.

That bond really hit me last night at the restaurant. There they chatted about people and events I had never heard of or attended. Later, G. teased R. about his alleycat ways with a casualness that was almost shocking (especially from G., whom I remember was the most uptight of the three. People change.) I was never excluded from the conversation, but I definitely felt like a fourth wheel.

It's my own fault, really. C. and G. have been more than generous in inviting me and The Spouse to many of their events and outings. We share plenty of the same interests to do so. But life, in the form of vacations, fatigue, other events, or just play bad timing, have made such rendezvous few and far between. Finally, The Spouse and I are quite insular with our free time to the point even our families barely see us.

Is it time to change the dynamics of my relationship with C., G., and R.?
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Carpe Diem (seize the day)