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Totaled Supra |
Unfortunately my fiancée lost control in our Supra around a corner on an oil slick and crashed into the concrete barrier. The Supra also hit an abandoned Hyundai on the side of the road before it finally came to a stop. The Hyundai was totaled and the rear of the Supra had minor damages. The chassis in the front of the Supra was bent, however, and it is estimated to cost four to six thousand to fix. This is much more than it is worth, so we are now selling the Supra as a parts car.
The for sale info can be found here on SupraMania.
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‹swaq›
January 4th, 2007
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PS3 Hype |
So I checked eBay today to look at PS3 that are being presold. I think it is ridiculous that there are people willing to shell out $1400 or more for a system that retails for $600. Hasn't anyone heard of delayed gratification? Seriously, all you have to do is wait a few months and you won't be paying twice as much or more for the damn thing.
I think Sony has been shooting themselves in the foot lately with rootkits, DRM, exploding batteries, Blu-Ray, and a constantly delayed PS3 shipping date. In my opinion the PS3 is too expensive for a mainstream console system and I'm doubting it will meet all the hype and expectations.
That doesn't mean I won't buy one though. When they come down in price I'll probably pick up a used one so I can play FFXIII. I just can't justify spending $600 on a new console, and especially not $1400. Also, I'm already planning on buying a used XBox 360 after the Christmas shopping season.
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‹swaq›
November 9th, 2006
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Engaged |
On Sunday, September 3rd, I asked my girlfriend to marry me. We're planning on having a long engagement, over a year till we get married.
In unrelated news, I'm going to redesign the site in the near future. It's going to be a pretty extensive overhaul as I want to redo the back end.
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‹swaq›
September 13th, 2006
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Lexus For Sale |
My family is selling their 1993 Lexus GS 300 with 150,000 miles. The car is located in Beaverton, Oregon, and the asking price is $6000 (negotiable). Full details and pictures can be found on this page.
In other news, my internship is coming to an end. I only have another two and a half weeks until I move back to Corvallis for school.
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‹swaq›
August 29th, 2006
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Supra and Stealth |
I have been keeping on top of blueprint orders fairly well recently. I currently have one order that needs to be filled. In other website news, last month's poll had a record number of votes for this site. Thanks for voting!
I helped my girlfriend's brother buy a Supra. It's a red 1990 Supra Turbo with a targa top. The engine was just rebuilt and it has a 3" downpipe. We're putting in a turbo timer soon. It only has about 93,500 miles right now and it drives beautifully. I'm a little jealous.
Last night I watched Stealth with my girlfriend. I went in with medium-low expectations and was really impressed. I was anticipating a pretty contrived storyline and overdone special effects. It turned out to be a good solid story with several big twists that I wouldn't have expected from watching the trailer. From the trailer it looked like the robot plane would go crazy and then the rest of the movie would be hunting it down and finally destroying it. I'm not going to spoil anything, but I can tell you that there is a lot more to it than that.
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‹swaq›
August 2nd, 2006
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Forum Closed |
I have closed the forum. There was no activity on it and spammers kept registering... I backed up the database in case I ever feel like bringing it back.
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‹swaq›
June 4th, 2006
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Blinding Lights |
So I'm driving to Beaverton from Corvallis on I-5 and it's late in the evening. By now it is dark out and people have their headlights on. However, it seems like every 10th car has left their brights on! It's one thing when you're on a deserted road and a car coming the other way forgets to dim their lights, but this is on a crowded Interstate highway... The worst is the huge trucks these days that get right up behind you and shine their brights through your back window. Do they not teach people to dim their lights anymore, or have people just got dumber? I've noticed this in the city as well. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to have your brights on in the city to begin with, especially since most the roads already have street lights.
My job at IBM has been going pretty well. It seems to have taken longer than it should have to get direct deposit working though. Supposedly the first one should go through this weekend (I've already been working for a month and a half). I was excited that I'd be making a lot of money from this internship, but it's kinda depressing how much I'm actually able to save. After taxes, rent, and food I think I'm only going to be keeping half of my wages...
I'm keeping up on blueprint scanning fairly well. Currently there is about an order and a half that needs to be filled. I'll try to get those done as soon as possible
A couple weekends ago was the two-year anniversary for my girlfriend and I. We had a semi-romantic dinner the night before with candles and roses and then went to Marie Callenders for the actual day. I bought her Age of Empires III and a video card capable of playing it (ATi X800 GTO) and she got me a Linksys wireless access point. We're such nerds, heh.
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‹swaq›
May 11th, 2006
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Relocation |
I have mostly moved to Beaverton now. I am living with my girlfriend's parents for a week until I can move into my apartment. It was really weird with her going back to school in Corvalis and me staying her at her house. And in her room. I've got my computer mostly set up for this temporary situation. I hope to be able to get caught up on blueprint scanning sometime this week.
I've only been here for one night so far and already we've had some excitement. The washer overflowed somehow. The whole laundry room was flooded and had started filling the entry way as well. Fortunately we caught it before too much damage could be done. My girlfriend's parents assure me that this sort of thing is not normal. Maybe I'm just bad luck, heh.
I start work at IBM tomorrow morning. I'm not exactly sure what time I'm supposed to show up, so I'm going to guess 8am. That means I need to get to bed on time, since I've been sleeping in late too much recently. Daylight savings certainly isn't helping things either. The reality that I'll be working full time until September starting tomorrow hasn't set in yet.
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‹swaq›
April 2nd, 2006
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Supra Shopping |
This weekend I went up to Beaverton to shop for an apartment for my Spring/Summer internship. I was able to find one that is within biking distance of IBM. Though it is a little spendy it is also really nice and I like the location.
I played some Halo 2 with my girlfriend's brother and his friend and got creamed. I guess I'll have to practice some more.
On Sunday we went up to Vancouver to look at a black 1989 Toyota Supra. It was a manual with a targa top, non-turbo, listed for $3800. It sounded nice, but when we got to see the car in person things started going downhill fast. The fuel door didn't stay shut, the rear bumper had a crack in it, the rear windshield's seal had started to wear away, the motor-driven antenna had been replaced by a fixed antenna (minus the antenna, and it felt really loose), the front fender was dented up, the windshield wipers were rusting, and the front tires had excessive wear.
Once we got into the car we found the interior was a little torn up around the shifter boot and arm rest. The shifter knob had been replaced by a cheap, ugly aftermarket part that looked like it was supposed to have LEDs glow when you pushed a little button on it. The bevel around the door lock on the inside was missing.
We popped the hood and found that the gas struts didn't hold it up on its own anymore. When the engine was running there was a really loud annoying noise coming from the engine bay. I also noticed some white smoke coming out of the tailpipe when the engine started up. The intake had been replaced with an aftermarket filter. The cover to the fuses was gone.
The car actually drove pretty nice and seemed to pull fine. The noise wasn't even noticeable in the driver's seat. However, the turn signals didn't work...
Judging from the worn tires, tinted windows, replaced shifter knob, and cheaply replaced antenna I'm guessing the car was owned by a high school kid who didn't take good care of it and drove it hard. We offered $2200, but it was a used car dealership so we weren't surprised when they declined. It's sad that a Supra could be so abused.
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‹swaq›
March 6th, 2006
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New Supra in 2007 |
Road and Track reports that Toyota is planning a 450 bhp V-8 Supra for October 2007. It will have both a convertible and coupe version and will cost between $40,000 and $50,000, depending on the engine, options, etc. A scanned copy of the article can be found here.
The Toyota Supra has been my favorite car since since before I was a teenager, so needless to say I was very disappointed to see it discontinued in 1998. In the very least I'm hoping that a re-introduction will drop the price on the 1993.5-1998 Supras.
In other news, I am going up to Beaverton today to look for an apartment for my Spring/Summer internship at IBM. I may also look at a 1989 Supra for sale with my girlfriend's brother while I'm up there.
I'm very sorry to the people who have ordered blueprints recently. I have been swamped with stuff recently and haven't been able to scan your orders. I have a 6-8 page essay to write by Monday afternoon and I haven't even picked a topic yet. Somehow I'm going to have to get that done between looking at an apartment and my other homework/studying this weekend.
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‹swaq›
March 4th, 2006
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Winamp 5.2 |
So a few days ago I upgraded to Winamp 5.2 from 5.13 which supposed fixed a bunch of problems and had some improvments. I have had nothing but disappointment with this upgrade. Pretty much all my settings were wiped up in the change. I also had to reload all my music back into the Media Library and all my "Most Played", "Recently Played", etc. lists had been cleared. Now I can live with those problems, it's just a minor one-time inconvenience to reload the library and I didn't mourn the loss of my Most Played information for too long. However the thing that really bugged me was that the "On end of queue->Stop playing" feature stopped working. What this feature does is it allows you to select a queue of songs that will play in order and then after it plays the last song the player will stop. However, with the feature broken it now continues to play random songs after it is done with my queue. This is very annoying because I often want to control exactly what is played. Sometimes I like to leave my computer playing music when I leave my room and I'd like it to stop whenever the current list is through so it doesn't go on playing who-knows-what forever while I'm gone.
Anyway, that's my short little rant for the day. Hopefully Nullsoft will update Winamp again soon with a fix... I don't feel like going back to the older version and then re-upgrading because I don't want to hassle with repopulating my Media Library again and again.
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‹swaq›
February 28th, 2006
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Auto Show Pictures |
I have finally, with the help of Photoshop batch jobs, resized all the pictures I took from the last three Portland Auto Shows down to 640x480 from their original 2592x1944. 476 images total...
I have uploaded the images to folders based on year. It isn't very convenient for browsing (no thumbnails, just all pictures on one page) but it's better than nothing.
2004 was the first year I went to the auto show. The big news was the Ferrari Enzo. There was also a modified Supra and a Noble M12.
Portland Auto Show 2004
As much as I loved the Lotus Elise, Ferraris (360, F40, F50, Enzo), Saleen S7, Ford GT, and Diablo, I really think the star of the 2005 auto show was the Porsche Carrera GT.
Portland Auto Show 2005
The Lego Volvo was really cool, but the talk of the show was definitely the Elise. Most of the supercars from last year's show made an appearance again, with the addition of the Ferrari F430 and Vector W8.
Portland Auto Show 2006
Don't forget to vote in this month's poll! See the previous news post for an explanation.
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‹swaq›
February 2nd, 2006
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Collaborative Filtering Idea |
So the poll this month is about an idea I have with collaborative filtering. Basically you would register on this site (so it could remember your choices) and rate a few cars on some scale, like 0-5 stars. Then the gallery will list cars which it thinks you would rate highly based on other users that rated cars similarly to you. This would be like amazon.com when it says "other people who bought this CD also bought..."
Anyway, please vote in the poll so I can see if people would actually be interested in this sort of thing. I'm thinking about using this idea for a thesis paper.
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‹swaq›
February 1st, 2006
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Rice Valley |
The icon for this post is not photoshoped at all. That is a real exit off of I-5. The picture was actually taken back in May and I kinda forgot about it. I've driven by that sign several times on trips before but had never had my camera ready.
I'm toying with the idea of making a special section of this site called Rice Valley dedicated to riced cars. What is a riced car? It is when a car has modifications that that are all for looks but don't actually help the performance of the car, and sometimes hinder it. For instance, a Honda civic with an oversized exhaust and/or huge spoiler/wing would be considered rice. In the worst cases the owner spends tons of money on a body kit, paint/stickers, wing, huge exhaust tip, etc. but doesn't touch the 1.8 liter engine at all and the car has an automatic transmission. These cars are loud and obnoxious and are often driven as if they are race cars, despite the fact that it takes them 10 full seconds to reach 60 mph.
For more information and pictures of riced cars visit Ricecop or Rice-Boy Page.
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‹swaq›
January 22nd, 2006
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Toys and New Year |
Well it is another year and hopefully it will be more productive than the last. Although last year I did manage to get caught up on all my blueprint scanning, I really didn't do much else for the site. So far this year I have stayed caught up with blueprints and unless a bunch of people start making big orders I should be able to stay that way. I added a poll this month on whether to this site needs a redesign. If you think it does I would appreciate suggestions posted on the forum. I'm not sure if I'd even be able to get around to doing anything but constructive criticism is always nice.
I got a new flat panel monitor for Christmas (mostly paid for by myself). The picture on it is so much better than my last one. I can actually tell the difference between white and very light colors now. It also has a 1600x1200 resolution which gives me a lot more space to work with.
Classes start again tomorrow. I'm a little worried that I didn't get myself reorganized enough over the break. I'm pretty sure I'll do just fine, but I hate feeling like I'm always behind or playing catch up.
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‹swaq›
January 8th, 2006
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Burdens Lifted |
So I finished the last of my finals for this week. It feels so nice to be done for the term. Now I get to relax for about a month, don't have to worry about school or just about anything. My finals weren't as bad as I thought they would be either. Most of them I was able to finish pretty early, which is good. I just have to wait for the grades to come in, hopefully they will be as good as the test difficultly would lead me to believe.
In other news... the impossible has been achieved. I never thought this would actually happen, but I've finally got completely caught up on blueprint scanning! I've been behind for almost two years now and I've felt pretty bad about it. For those of you who think that I'm either a slacker or don't know how to operate a scanner in an efficient manner, I'll have you know that I have now scanned a total of 141 blueprints. This was while working, taking classes, and trying to have a life in addition to keeping my website (and some other people's websites) updated and running.
During the break I want to do some programming that I just haven't had time for. Probably work on a game I've been meaning to develop and enhance this site some more. I hope everyone has a great holiday/Christmas/etc.
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‹swaq›
December 9th, 2005
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Cold Weather |
Today when walking between classes I saw a few snowflakes. This is very rare around here this time of the year. Hopefully we will get snow around Christmas! Interestingly this very cold weather doesn't keep the girls from wearing low cut shirts. I don't think they are entirely sane... I was cold with a long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, windbreaker, long pants, gloves, and a headband.
In other news I still hope to get completely caught up on blueprints by the end of the term. Thanksgiving break and various homework has slowed my progress but I still have hope.
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‹swaq›
November 28th, 2005
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Scanning Progress |
I have actually been keeping up on scanning blueprints for the last week, averaging two cars a day! If I can keep up this routine I'll be completely caught up by the end of the term, which is my goal. Maybe when I get caught up I'll have time to extend the gallery with more cars and perhaps a search feature.
In other news, I went down to Coquille for my Grandparents' 50th anniversary on Saturday. I got to drive my parent's 1993 Lexus GS 300 which they just bought. It's a really nice car: heated leather seats, comfortable ride, plenty of power, and very good handling. It's only flaw is it happens to be an automatic. Since I want to buy a Lexus SC 300 in the future it was good to drive the GS 300 because it has the same engine and is a similar year so I could get a feel for what the SC 300 would be like. Of course, I won't settle for anything other than a manual.
The term is going along pretty well. I've been busy but not too overwhelmed most of the time. Work has been good, but I wasn't getting very many hours until recently, mostly thanks to homework and impending project due dates. I still have a couple more midterms left and then I can look forward to my three finals and the freedom that lies beyond.
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‹swaq›
November 15th, 2005
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Happy Halloween |
I hope everyone had a great Halloween. I pretty much just sat on a couch eating candy and reading all night, but I had someone to keep me company. As usual I have had more to get done than I have time to do and yet I still procrastinate. To those of you who still are waiting to get your blueprint orders I am extremely sorry for the delay. One of these days I'm going to catch up, really. I just have so many things I want to get done in addition to keeping up my grades in school and going to work. There's a new poll up this month, feel free to vote! That's all for now.
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‹swaq›
November 1st, 2005
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Data Recovery |
I was able to recover the data from my hard drive using a program called GetDataBack by Runtime Software. It cost me but at least I didn't lose any data. I have now safely unplugged that hard drive from my system while I work on the hard drive I intended to in the first place. I'm still having trouble with the formatting step of installing an operating system so it may still be a while before I'm fully back on track with a working computer.
Last night I went to see Serenity. It was a lot more tense than I had expected, but still very good. There were a few things in the movie I probably would have done differently, but oh well, I won't spoil it for any of you who might still want to go see it.
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‹swaq›
October 1st, 2005
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It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end. -- Ursula Le Guin
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