My First Real Car

I promised actual pictures of my new car, and so here they are (courtesy of my cool brother)! All six of them can be enlarged in a new window simply by clicking on them. I said 'real' in the title of the post because my old car was my mom's 1990 Nissan Maxima and now I have upgraded to a 1996 Volvo 850 Turbo. I haven't thought of a name for it though, so let me know if the pictures inspire a certain name.

    

It may have that old school boxy shape, but I still love the way it looks. The dealership waxed it real nice so it's all shiny and it still looks like that since I've kept it in the garage. I may even pay for covered parking at my apartment complex this year. Also, notice the pretty alloy wheels! I blurred the license plate in the front view because I wouldn't feel safe having that so readily available online. I don't know why but I really like the way that grill looks. Notice that there's no dents or busted lights because it has never been in an accident. Oh, and you can see my mom's Santa Fe in the background, which looks extra shiny now that I've washed it.

    

Again, I blurred the license plate but you can still see its sexy ass! I would've taken a shot of the trunk but there's nothing real special about it except the Alpine CD Changer, which I still have to get the cartridge for (probably from Tweeter). You can see the Maxima in the background and my brother's sweet Acura CL in the garage. In that dashboard shot you can see my graduation tassel, and other than that it's a pretty standard dashboard. I love the dual climate control and the information center below the speedometer the most. Oh, and you can also see the turbo meter. Apparently, at a certain speed and/or acceleration the turbo kicks in, which the meter would show, and give an extra boost of power. I haven't been on a freeway with it yet but I will be trying that out very soon.

    

I felt that this would be the best angle of the interior to get, but at least you can see the leather interior (which is grey, not black as I had previously misreported). It's pretty clean and a child seat folds out of the back, which is totally useless to me except that behind that there's easy access to the trunk. This also means that should I get shoved in my trunk I can actually get out. The last picture is my favorite part of the car: the engine. I'm pretty sure that it's under 200 HP but at least it's turbo-charged and has 6 cylinders. I just think it looks really pretty and sleek. I didn't take a picture of the sun roof because I didn't think it was anything special, but it'll come in handy for crisp autumn days in Austin (the weather was pretty nice last fall at least). If you actually want to read more about the car you can see my old post about it here.

If you just came for the car pictures you can leave now. Given how long this post is, I'll go easy on the tech news. The Wall Street Journal has a nice concise article on spear phishing test in which IT security people from a company will sent out seemingly authentic phishing scams to test how many people succumb to it and subsequently slap them on the hand for it. It's an interesting technique and definitely necessary given the seriousness of the problem. Microsoft is taking a pretty smart route with Xbox 360 pricing by making a barebones system with just a wired controller $300. For an extra hundred you can get some bells and whistles though (wireless controller, Ethernet cable, HD, remote, and headset), which makes the console cheaper than the PS3 at this point in time. The last things are new innovations. One is a liquid thin lens that could mean huge gains in optical zoom for digital cameras, not to mention it sounds pretty cool. The other thing is a display unit that projects 3D images in the air via lasers, and it's actually for sale already. I'm sure the price is high, but someday it will be very useful.

There's a ton of movie news today so I'll keep each item brief. Sony has decided to bankroll a sequel to Kung Fu Hustle in light of the success of the original, so that's a good news for fans of funny kung fu action flicks. V For Vendetta has been pushed back several months from November to March, supposedly because it's not done yet. I think holding off so long after steam has already built up for it is bad. AICN got a review for the Project Greenlight movie Feast, and apparently it turned out to be a great first horror film for Gulager. There's also a surprisingly early review floating around for Southland Tales, and while it has some spoilers the basic idea of it is that this movie blows Donnie Darko out of the water with execution. I'm still very excited to see that one, especially since it's been so mysterious. A Catholic nun is protesting the Da Vinci Code movie because she calls the book blasphemy, but I don't understand the worth of getting caught up over a fictional novel. Would God really care? Lastly, IGN has a sneak preview of the upcoming Flash site for Corpse Bride, and it's pretty artistic though slow to load.

And now to get down and dirty with the Wednesday Mind Hump:

01. If your brain were scratch and sniff, what smell might we be sniffing when we scratched?
I kind of hope that it would smell like chocolate. Even if it smelled like my laundry it would be pretty cool. With the amount I sweat in Houston though I'd guess it would probably smell like funk though.

02. "There was an old lady who lived in a shoe ..." If you lived in a shoe, what kind of shoe would it be?
I think I'd like to live in large, name-brand shoe. Generic brand shoes get worn out too quickly and so if you're going to live in a shoe you might as well spend a few extra bucks on a nicer one. Probably Nike since they tend to last a long time.

03. What the last thing that made you laugh so hard you spit out whatever you were drinking?
I actually don't know. I know it has happened in high school, I just don't remember what it was. I'm sure it was one of the dumb pranks one of my friends played on another friend.

04. If you were an "As Seen On TV" product what would your function be and what cheesy name would you have?
I'd be studying machine: the Eltontron 3000. If you get a warranty I'll last til the year 3000 for all your nerdy needs.

05. A doctor is giving you a complete physical exam and says, "That's odd". What has the doctor found?
Probably all those tapioca balls I've eaten from Tapioca House boba in Austin. Or, I think I swallowed a piece of gum on accident a few years ago that he might find.

06. What would you wear for camouflage if you were hiding in a gingerbread house?
Probably a suit made of chocolate chip cookies. I guess they don't have to be chocolate chip but the browner I am the better so as long as they're cookies.