halp.

I’m thinking that I need to come up with a name for my new car.

My previous car remained nameless because, even though it was my first car, it was not truly my car. It had been raised and cared for by another person through all of it’s formative, impressionable years (or 75,000 miles). I merely stumbled across the car somewhere in it’s awkward 30’s (in car years).

My baby Honda, however, was hand-picked by myself, driven off the lot by myself, and broken-in by myself. It is uniquely mine, and therefore, it requires a name. Hopefully this spirited little guy will last me a few hundred thousand miles, so I don’t want to fritter away my naming privilages on a title I will regret down the road. [wordplay!]

Please help me come up with a name. So far the only name on my very short list is ‘Slartibartfast’.

And I know we can do better than that.

Goodbye old friend.

Today I sold my first car.

I’m gonna miss that little guy. Despite how much I complained about it, we went through a lot together. Like that time we…

-had the window fall into the door during the middle of winter
-decided to run on only 3 cylinders and kill my catalytic converter
-had slow leaks in 75% of my tires
-ate through all the ventilation hoses so my turbo hiccuped constantly
-went over a year without any heat
-spun into a snowbank and messed up my front end
-got a 2nd hand rear-ending
-had a spare rub against the brakes and ruin the calipers
-replaced the O2 sensor half a dozen times
-found that the air box intake grommet pulled through and scrapped against my half-axle
-learned that the engine eats snow and likes to die on the M6 on very important days
-backed into Joe’s garbage can
-often sputter while driving in heavy rain. He gets thirsty…
-wore a wheel down to the belt because the alignment is so horribly bad

OK, I guess we had a few issues together. But that car was a ton of fun, I’m really gonna miss how much personality that turbo had (not so much the torque steer though).

Luckily I have found a suitable replacement. Sure it has over 50% less power, but now I can use regular gas, fit my bass gear in easily, get better mileage, and stop visiting a mechanic every weekend.

Also, iz purty.

reflections and BEAR!!! hugs.

I suppose I made an early slip in the ‘post once a day’ thing. I’m probably one of the few who noticed though. Well, I guess I should remedy this…

My car is fixed. My original ignition coil packs somehow survived this long (they generally explode much sooner), but finally kicked the bucket when my engine ate it’s weight in snow on Friday. So $800 dollars later I have a working Jetta and an increased motivation to shop for a Subie.

I went into work for just an hour yesterday to organize things a bit for intern #2. It’s amazing how different the plant is when most of the lights are off and the place is empty. It’s also amazing how quickly you can get stuff done when there’s no one else there. So now I am officially done until April, assuming they don’t pull me in for inventory /crossfingers  .

This whole ‘vacation/layoff” thing seems to be going relatively well. My mind seems to dwindle rather quickly without the need to be productive. I’ve been finding myself staring at the floor for a minute or two quite often, or just zoning out when talking to people. Maybe my body doesn’t know what to do with all of this extra sleep.

One of my absolute favorite moments of…ever, is when we sing ‘Silent Night’ at my church on Christmas Eve. It’s always a capella and everybody holds these little white candles. They lights turn off and the pastor lights one persons candle, then the flame slowly spreads around the room until every candle is lit. Of course a large part of the reason I loved this when I was younger was that it was one of my few chances to play with fire. indoors!  The sancuary at Jenison Christian Church (where I’ve gone my whole life) is a big brick octogan, and at the pinnacle of the ceiling is a semi transparent skylight with a cross sitting above it. One of my most loved images is looking up into the skylight and seeing the reflection of all the little candles flickering. It’s my favorite part of Christmas, no question.

Interesting invention today (thanks to my girlfriend). The “BEAR!!! hug”. It’s when a girl hugs you from behind, as if she is shielding herself from the oncoming attacks of the godless killing machines so often lightly called ‘bears’. Of course this will only work if the guy is taller than the girl, but if you’re in a relationship where the girl is taller than the guy, GET OUT! that’s just not right.

What WON’T fit in a nesquick bottle?

Do you ever get the feeling on a saturday morning where you wake up to see sunlight sneaking in thru your blinds, but you just want to go back to sleep? Problem is, it takes at least 15 minutes to fall asleep, then a half hour later you’re awake again. But the last thing you can do is look at your clock, because the precise moment you learn the time, you will lose all likelihood of falling asleep for the rest of the day. Eventually you just lay there…wishing you were unconcious….contemplating life, questioning why bands give themselves such ridiculous names, pondering why men have nipples…

I do sometimes.

Today was splendid.

I went out to BW3’s with Zim and Brian. Ordered coffee and popcorn shrimp. I think I was the only person there drinking coffee, but I’m okay with that. I miss Zim, he has a great passion for so much, and he always knows how get lulz out of me. I remembered again why I love Brian’s brain so much. I’ve never met anybody with such a fun and simply unique thought process. I do love that boy (and not just because of his mad skillz at deformed table tennis).

Went xmas shopping with Jarrod. Realized that Jenison=/=Grandville, who knew? After that we went to Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins, I had two large donuts and felt very american. We talked for…forever, but it was great. I love having so many shared interestests with friends, there’s no simpler joy that just talking over some donuts and nesquick for hours on end.

Only dour part of the day was hearing that my car won’t be fixed until monday. My engine is designed so that it sucks snow into the air box. What this means for me is a new air filter(cheap), new sparks plugs(not bad), and four new coil packs(oh noes!).  The only fix: don’t drive in snow.

yeah…thanks Germany.

EDIT: This made me lol myself. Kids say the most existentially terrifying things…
 http://tinyurl.com/ax2bw9