Filed under: Cars — at 11:47 pm by jim

My apologies for not posting anything now in over a month… I just haven’t really been in the writing mood recently.

So what’s been going on since 10-4, good buddy?  Most notably, I’m now in a relationship with a great girl.  She’s nice, caring, smart, and beautiful.  And the best thing about her?  She represents BMW at various car shows across the country.

Alright, that’s not the best thing about her…. the “nice, caring, smart, and beautiful” part definitely beats that.  But a nice perk of her job is that she can show me all sorts of BMW promotional materials.  Just today, she sent me this photo of the backdrop from the BMW show booth:

 

“Goes from 0-60 in the time it took you to read this”… unless you’ve taken speed-reading lessons, in which case you can probably read that slogan in under 4.8 seconds.  That’s a shot of the new M3, which for the first time will be powered by a formidable V8 engine.  I’m sure that it will be a truly awesome vehicle.

Filed under: Life — at 9:10 am by jim

10-4, good buddy!!!

Haha, that one never gets old.  Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but I just haven’t thought of any good topics.  Hopefully that will change soon.

Filed under: Cars — at 8:50 pm by jim

I realized that I haven’t written anything in quite a while, so I figure I should post something to let regular readers know that I’m still alive.

The Corolla just went 230 miles on 10.8 gallons of gas.  So that’s a measly 21.3mpg.  Not spectacular, but still better than the BMW’s usual 16mpg.

I’ll hopefully have something interesting to post later in the week.

Filed under: Cars — at 11:28 pm by jim

Well, she finally made it:

My BMW now has 150,000 miles on it! Appropriately enough, this photo was taken today right after lunch at my favorite restaurant Eats.

For a BMW, 150K miles is still pretty early in life. I’ve heard of quite a few E36 M3’s making it past 250,000 miles. Since I’m only putting on about 5,000 miles a year now, that means that she has at least another 20 years left in her.

Filed under: Cars — at 3:03 pm by jim

I was driving my car back from lunch just a little while ago… I had taken lunch at 1:00pm, and so I was heading back to the office at around 2:00pm.

Out of nowhere, my car beeped at me three times… “beep beep beep”.  What the hell?  It sounded just like my friend’s radar detector, which made this even more confusing.  If the car had a built-in radar detector, I’m sure I would have found out about it much sooner than now.

I looked for any other warning signs, but didn’t see any.  The car wasn’t overheating… it wasn’t low on gas… it didn’t have the Check Engine light on… and the “Check Control” said that everything’s ok.  So I drove it back to work, still a little freaked out, because the car clearly knew something that I didn’t know.

So I got back and checked bimmerforums.com for any information on this mysterious beeping… a quick search of the forums gave me my answer: I accidentally hit the Memo button at some point.  Up until now, I always thought that the memo button allowed me to record a voice memo that I could play back later… I had never actually tried it, but it seemed like the logical function, given its description.

Actually, the Memo button causes the car to beep three times on the 59th minute of every hour (12:59, 1:59, …) as a reminder to tune into the news on the radio.  Apparently Germans love to check the hourly news for traffic and weather updates.  So in response, BMW added a button to the car for this one specific purpose.

This is the first time that I’ve found a feature in my car and thought, “Wow, that’s the dumbest feature ever.”  Hopefully I won’t find any other features like that.

Filed under: Life — at 10:57 am by jim

Yes, it’s a rather arbitrary amount… but what would you do if you just happened to have an extra three grand lying around?  That’s the question I’ve been asking myself for the past week.

Every month, my printed bank statement arrives from Wachovia… it always shows my usual AT WORK REGULAR CKG account, with a balance anywhere between $10 and $4000.  That’s just the checking account into which my company auto-deposits my monthly paychecks.  I then withdraw all of the money and spend it on essential goods like alcohol and fast food.

But in addition to that account, my bank statement also shows a FREE STUDENT CKG account with the exact amount of $3194.09.  This account has been on there every single month, for well over a year.  I never really thought anything of it, because I couldn’t imagine having $3200 that I somehow misplaced.  That’s basically one month’s take-home income for me, and I would have realized that it wasn’t in the correct bank account when I tried to pay some of my bills.  So instead, I figured maybe this was a line item on my bank statement that actually represented my overdraft protection, or something weird like that.

Yet I still thought that I should check, just to be sure that I didn’t have a whole lot of extra money just sitting there.  Besides, it was kind of odd that the amount never changed.  So last week, I planned to go over to the bank to ask them about the account… I never got around to it until yesterday, so I spent a whole week thinking about what I would do if this was money that I could actually spend.

I could use the money to completely pay off my car loan on the Corolla… then I would have an extra $170 each month to spend however I wanted.  When I combine that with my recent annual raise, I would have an additional $500 a month in disposable income (used for alcohol and fast food).

Alternatively, I could test my investment skills on the stock market… that could be a fun hobby, and it would have the potential for financial gains too.

Or maybe I’d just use the money for a vacation.  With $3200, I could take an trip to pretty much anywhere for a couple of weeks.  I’d only have to choose a destination.

Well after all of that daydreaming, I finally went to the bank yesterday and asked about the account.  The teller looked a little confused, because the account number didn’t even show up under my name… in fact, she said the person wasn’t even the same nationality as me.  I’m not sure why she told me that, but it was kind of funny.

When she realized the situation, she started talking very quietly… I’m guessing that maybe she didn’t want other customers to hear what had happened.  So she had me speak with someone else in the bank… this person was also a bit surprised by the situation.  She took down the two account numbers and said she’d fix the problem.  Several hours later, I received a call to confirm that the account was not actually mine, and it was no longer linked to me.

Amusingly, I feel as if I lost $3200, even though I technically never had it.

Filed under: Cars — at 4:04 pm by jim

This has been the talk of BMW internet forums for the last couple of weeks… BMW recently announced that they will be releasing its 1 Series Coupe next year in the US.

What makes this car so exciting?  Well, BMW is finally releasing a “small” car again.  Although the 3-series is supposed to be their “mid-size” coupe or sedan, the latest generations have been getting bigger and bigger.  Back in the 80s, BMW’s 3-series (the E30) weighed under 3000 pounds.  For example, the curb weight of the 1984 325i was 2,830 pounds.

In the 90s, BMW had the E36 3-series… a 1991 325is had a curb weight of 3,100 pounds.  The horsepower also increased from 168hp to 189hp.  So even though they added 9.5% more body weight, they also increased the power by 12.5%.

Finally, since 1998 BMW has been selling their E46 3-series.  The E46 328is had a curb weight of 3,240 pounds.  So they added almost an additional 150 pounds.  A lot of that has to do with extra luxury and extra safety features… and they kept the car quick by giving it an engine that produced 193hp.  Nonetheless, heavy cars don’t transition in corners as well as light cars.  So even though the car will move quickly in a line, it won’t be as fast around a track.

Now finally, BMW is releasing their 1-series vehicle to us.  It has an estimated weight of only 3080 lbs.  Additionally, it boasts an impressive 300hp and 300 ft-lbs of torque.  With that sort of power, it’ll go from 0 to 60 even faster than my M3!  And the best part?  The car won’t be 12 years old, like my 1995 vehicle.

So if I can figure out a way to gather together $35,000, I’ll be able to own one of these awesome vehicles.  Maybe it’s time to get a second job.

Filed under: Life — at 9:11 am by jim

I woke up at 6:00am this morning because my right eye was very irritated. It was really pink, but I don’t know if it actually qualifies as “pink eye” (conjunctivitis). The redness has gone down quite a bit in the last few hours, so that’s promising.

As a perk, the left eye looks much whiter in comparison.

Filed under: Life — at 2:50 pm by jim

Yesterday I received something interesting in the mail:

A promotional packet of Gas-X Thin Strips.  No, this wasn’t a message from one of my friends… six months ago someone sent me a link to a Gas-X web site where you could register to receive a couple of the strips to try.  I filled out my information, submitted it, and then completely forgot about it.  Well, the strips finally arrived.

Just in time too… yesterday for lunch I had a bacon cheeseburger with some tater tots.  Then for dinner I had some hot wings and fries, washed down with a pitcher of beer.  That’s the sort of meal that a man should eat while watching the MLB All-Star game.

However, it’s also the sort of meal that’s going to give a man gas.  So at midnight, I broke open the package.

Two strips.  I opened one of the strip packages, and the actual Gas-X strip looks just like one of those Listerine breath strips, except with a “GX” on it:

So I took it… the peppermint flavor is actually pretty subtle when compared to a breath strip.  It definitely wasn’t enough to kill my bar-food breath.  I’m guessing that they added the peppermint in order to mask the flavor of whatever medicine they put in it.

Anyway, the thing definitely worked.  By the time that I went to sleep at 1:00am, I was feeling fine.  I’m not sure if these are available in stores yet, but they’ll definitely be a worthwhile investment.

Filed under: Cars — at 9:47 am by jim

I got my BMW back last night from Wolfgang’s.  Price-wise, the repair was pretty reasonable… I paid $280 to have two wheel speed sensors replaced.  The sensors themselves cost about $90 apiece… plus another $80 in labor… plus tax.

As I was told, there were actually three ABS error codes being thrown.  One was for my front-left speed sensor, and one was for my front-right speed sensor.  However, the third was for a power failure in the solenoid of something… I had no idea what this error code was about.  My mechanic said that it was possible that the two faulty sensors were throwing off my ABS module, so that’s why it was throwing this extra code.  So he didn’t replace anything else, but said it’s possible the ABS light would come on again.

So I got in the car, turned it on, and… SUCCESS!  No ABS light.  However, when I was only a few miles from my condo, trouble struck again.  The ABS light came on again, like my mechanic had said would possibly happen.  Apparently there’s another issue with the ABS system still.

This means that I’ll have to bring the car into the shop again at some point.  That’s not too bad, because I was planning to bring it in next month to replace some suspension components.

What’s really rough though is that I have an autocross event tomorrow night… if I drive without the ABS, I’ll risk flat-spotting my tires if I lock up my brakes during a hard stop.  One option is to only drive at about 80%, making sure to slow down very early for each of the turns.  I wouldn’t get a good lap time then, but at least I’d be able to compete.  It’s really tempting, since this is the first night event to be hosted by the Atlanta Region SCCA.

Filed under: Life — at 9:46 am by jim

I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July.

A few people have asked how I did on the Peachtree Road Race… it went pretty well.  I ended up running with two of my friends that also had numbers.  They didn’t plan to run very hard, so I decided to run with them for only the first half of it.  This part is the downhill section of the course.  After that, I picked up the pace and ran the uphill half a bit faster.  At the end, my time was 1 hour, 5 minutes.  Not bad, given that I wasn’t really pushing for half of the race.

Afterwards, I took a nap for a couple of hours, and then headed to a pool party.  That was a lot of fun… plenty of Leinenkugel was consumed, and we played a few dumb pool games.  Good times.

Filed under: Cars — at 10:12 pm by jim

I’ll be waking up in six hours, at 4:00am… that’s definitely not my usual wake-up time.

So why am I rising so early tomorrow?  I need to get some minor work done on the BMW before this weekend’s evening autocross event.  The shop that I use, Wolfgang’s Duluth Auto Repair, is about 30 miles away from where I live… so it’s difficult to find someone who will drive me back to Midtown from that far away.

Fortunately, one of my coworkers lives right down the block from the repair shop… in fact, she’s the one that recommended the shop to me.  So I asked her if she wouldn’t mind picking me up on her way into work.  She said OK, but she likes to arrive at work around 6:30am, which means that she leaves from up there around 5:30am.  And for me to be there by 5:30am, I need to leave my place by 4:45am… which means I need to wake up at 4:00am.

We’ll see how well this works.  I have two alarms set, so waking up won’t be a problem… the problem will be staying awake.  The solution will be lots of coffee.

Update: It’s 6:30am, and I’m at work.  So far, I’ve had my early-morning cup of coffee.  Maybe in a couple of hours, I’ll have my late-morning cup of coffee.

Update #2: I called Wolfgang’s at 4:30pm to check on the status of my car.  They said they were waiting for the parts (two wheel speed sensors) to arrive, and they weren’t sure whether they’d get them by the end of the work day.  I told them I’d just come pick up the car on Thursday then… so for the next couple of days, I’ll be driving La Corolla.

Filed under: Life — at 11:14 pm by jim

The Peachtree Road Race is exactly one week from today… for anyone not from Atlanta, this is the 10K that happens every year on July 4th.  As of three days ago, I didn’t expect to run in it.  I didn’t register, so I didn’t receive a number for the race.

Everything changed on Monday though, because one of my friends knew someone that had an available number.  So I accepted it, even though I haven’t gone running in over a month.  So at that point, I had 9 days to train.  I figured that I could do 3-mile runs every other day, and that would at least give my body a warning of what was to come.

So on Monday I did a 2-mile run… I felt horrendous afterwards.  It took me 20 minutes (10 min/mi), which isn’t too bad for my first run in over a month.  But tonight when I went running again, I was able to run three miles in only 28 minutes.  I felt like I was going to die at the end of it, but it was a pretty big accomplishment.

Hopefully my runs on Friday and Sunday will go pretty well… if I can run them in 28 minutes again, I’ll be pleased with that.  Then after Sunday, I’ll give my muscles a break until race day on Wednesday.

Oh, and on a related note… this is what I drank BEFORE running tonight:

It gave me a much-needed energy boost… and then this is what I drank AFTER running tonight:

Mmmmmm…. Fruity Pebbles beer.  I mean, Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat beer.  I found it at the Capital City Liquor Store right down the street from my condo.  You might think that I shouldn’t drink beer while training for the race… but I burned almost 500 calories today while running, so I think I deserve a couple of brewskis.

Filed under: Life — at 3:34 pm by jim

July hasn’t even started, and I already know that all of my disposable income for that month is gone.

First is the $40 fee I’m paying for my Peachtree Road Race number.  I just found out yesterday that I’d be getting a number from a friend’s friend.  Then I’m also buying a Georgia Tech football season ticket, which will run me about $250.  At least I’m getting seven Saturdays of fun for that admission price.

Then I’ll be seeing three different doctors next month… don’t worry, it’s just annual check-ups.  Nonetheless, I’ll have to pay co-pays, plus I already know that I’ll be paying $300 for an annual supply of contact lenses.  And then the BMW is going to the car doctor to get some work done.

So that’s what’s in store for July… the money may be well-spent, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.

Filed under: Life — at 4:53 pm by jim

Generally I don’t care so much about the quality of my beers… any cheap beer works for me, as long as it doesn’t give me bitter beer face.  I’m fine drinking something as basic as Coors Light, Miller Light, or Bud Light.  When I feel like drinking something “classy”, maybe I’ll try a good pilsner or wheat beer.

This weekend though, I sampled one of the most interesting and memorable beers ever… Leinenkugel Sunset wheat beer.  What makes this so much more memorable than any other wheat beer I’ve had?  Well, it tastes just like Fruity Pebbles cereal.

Before you disregard this beer, hear me out… the Fruity Pebbles flavor is actually GOOD.  It’s a nice citrus undertone that goes really well with the yeasty flavor of the beer.  It’s essentially a substitute for the lemon slice that most bars would put in a wheat beer.

And let’s be clear, it’s not so overbearing that it produces a “girlie drink”.  It’s still a good masculine beer, the sort of thing you’d put down while washing a car or doing some yard work.

When I find a store that stocks this stuff, I’ll let you guys know.  It’s worth picking up a six-pack though.

Filed under: Life — at 3:05 pm by jim

Today is the Summer Solstice… we’ll have more sunlight available today than on any other day of the year.

However, I’ll probably get almost the exact same amount of sunlight that I get all other days of the year… roughly 10 minutes when I drive from home to work… 10 minutes when I drive from work to lunch… 10 minutes when I drive from lunch back to work… and then 10 minutes when I drive from work to home.  So given the 14.5 hours of sunlight that will be available today, I will be outside for 40 minutes of it.  The rest of the time, I will be hidden behind closed blinds.

So for me, the Summer Solstice is the day on which I miss the most amount of sunlight… almost 14 hours of sunlight that I don’t utilize.

Filed under: Life — at 2:55 pm by jim

I had a really late lunch today, around 1:30pm.  At that point, I wasn’t even sure where I wanted to eat, so I just started driving around.  I ended up at the Fellini’s on Ponce De Leon.  For anyone who cares, I had their italian sausage pizza, and it was really good.

But onto the actual story… when I left the restaurant around 2:15, there were a bunch of motorcycle cops blocking off intersections along the road.  There were probably about 10 motorcycle cops in all.  That’s not the odd part, because they do this whenever there’s a funeral procession for a significant person, or if there’s a campaigning politician or something.

So I was sitting in traffic, waiting for the big procession to go past.  Finally I see it inching along Ponce, probably going about 10mph.  When it finally got past me, I saw what it was… just some dude on a bicycle.  Additionally, he was being flanked by three cop cars and one of those fire department SUVs.

He wasn’t in good shape, so I know he’s not a professional cyclist… and he didn’t look familiar, so he must not be famous.  I’m not sure what to think of this.  I did a quick search on AJC.com, but nothing came up there either, so I’m stumped.

It’s got to be something special though, because I know I wouldn’t get a dozen police escorts if I decided to start riding a bike down Ponce.  I wouldn’t even get a dozen police showing up once I got shot near Ponce & Boulevard.

Anyway, really weird.

Filed under: Life — at 2:57 pm by jim

Don’t I already sound more intelligent, just by saying that I read The Economist?  Anyway, I came across this short article about the per-capita alcohol consumption in various countries:

http://economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9325487 

Fascinating… our average consumption is well below European countries, because of our higher minimum drinking age.  We Americans apparently guzzle down a lowly 8.6 liters per year.

Upon first reading this, I panicked… I figured that I’m drinking at least 20 beers each week, which is 7 liters of beer… and we’re not even looking at shots and mixed drinks.  So in one week, I drink almost as much as the average American drinks in a year.  How is that possible???

But then I realized that they’re talking about PURE alcohol.  AAAAAHHHH… well that’s cool, I never drink pure alcohol.  So that’s 0.

Oh, you mean that they want me to calculate how much alcohol is in each of my drinks?  OK.  As an example, if a 12oz beer is 4% alcohol by volume, then that one beer is equivalent to 0.48oz of PURE alcohol.  So from those 20 beers, I drink 9.6oz of pure alcohol each week.

Add to that six shots each week… shots are roughly 40% alcohol (80 proof), and each shot is 1.5oz.  So that’s 6 * 0.40 * 1.5, which comes to 3.6oz of pure alcohol as shots.

And finally, add mixed drinks to that.  I’m not much of a mixed drink guy, so I only have about four of those as well each week… but the bars usually make those pretty strong, so each one is probably equal to about 1.5 shots of alcohol.  So that’s (4 * 1.5) * 0.40 * 1.5 = 3.6oz of pure alcohol as mixed drinks.

Alright, so I drink (9.6 + 3.6 + 3.6) = 16.8oz of pure alcohol each week…. and I probably do that about 48 weeks a year.  So that’s 806oz, or 24 liters of pure alcohol each year.  Well, it’s good to know that I’m above average in something.

Filed under: Life — at 4:49 pm by jim

Almost every Sunday for the past couple of months, I’ve been getting together with a bunch of old college friends to play in a kickball league.  Our team, the Kickin’ Kids, finished the season with a 5-3 record.  That’s actually four more wins than we had during the fall season!  Our regular season play was also decent enough to get us seeded 6th out of the 16 teams for the post-season tournament.

We figured that we had a pretty good shot against our opponent in the first round of the tourney… we had played them in our 5th game of the regular season.  Although we lost to them that day, it was only by one run… plus we had a lot of momentum because of the three consecutive wins we had following that loss.

The game was pretty intense… for the post-season, games are shortened from 7 innings down to 5 innings, in order to get all 5 tournament rounds played in one day.  This makes each scoring opportunity just a little bit more pressing.

My first at-bat of the game came during the third inning… there was one out, and no men on base.  I considered trying to get a solid kick past the outfielders… however, they had been playing some really strong defense that day, so it was more likely that it would be caught for an out.  Instead, I bunted the ball in order to get an easy base hit.

The kicker after me was a girl, so I knew she wasn’t going to do much with her at-bat.  Sure enough, she kicked a grounder right to the second baseman.  By the time that he had fielded it, I was already past him and to the base.  He went for an easy out at first, and this gave me a chance to go for third.  I made it in plenty of time, and they instead tossed the ball to home plate to prevent me from trying to get the run.

So at this point, there’s two outs with me on third base… the next kicker sent a bunt straight down the third base line.  The third baseman made a smart play by fielding it and holding it there, to prevent me from going for home.

So finally with two outs and men on first and third, one of our power kickers came to the plate.  He liked the look of the first pitch, so he took it and sent it deep to right field… however, their right fielder was in position and made an easy catch to end the inning.

The rest of the game flew by, and at the end of the fifth inning, the score was tied 3-3.  The game was now going into overtime, but we maintained our calm… we were holding our own, so we figured we could stop the other team’s offense one last time.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.  The other team scored 5 runs in the top of the inning, so the pressure was suddenly on us to produce.

Our first two batters didn’t fare so well.  They both kicked into easy outs, leaving us with two outs, but still needing 6 runs to win the game.  Things picked up after that though… first one runner got on base… then another… and then another.  We had runners on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.  The next batter HAD to produce, or else this was the end of our entire kickball season.  Who was that next batter?

Me… talk about a lot of pressure all on one man’s shoulders.  For the first two pitches, I couldn’t get my timing right.  I was behind the ball both times, so I let them roll by for strikes.  Two outs and two strikes… I knew that even if the next pitch wasn’t quite right, I had to kick it, just to be sure that I wasn’t caught looking for the last out of the season.

So on that third pitch, I really jumped on it.  I made good solid contact, and the ball was headed down the left-field line with some good speed.  It flew just over the third baseman’s reach and landed just barely fair!  Two of our runners scored, and we still had runners on first and second base.  This game was getting close!

Unfortunately, the batter after me failed to produce again… she gave it a pretty good kick, but it was only a pop-up to the first baseman.  Game Over, 10-7.

So that’s the end of the Spring 2007 edition of the Kickin’ Kids… I’m not sure when the next season will begin, but I’m already looking forward to it.  Supposedly our current team is going to split up into two separate teams, because we already have a pretty big roster, and we have a few more people that want to join us for next time.  I’m not sure how we’ll decide to split up… maybe we’ll do it like in elementary school, where two captains each pick a player one-at-a-time.  I’d be cool with that, as long as I’m not picked last.

Filed under: Life — at 11:22 pm by jim

Contrary to what most people thought, I’ve survived to be 27 years of age. That’s 50% older than 18-year-olds. Not that it stops 18-year-old girls from flirting with me.

Given that though, being 27 isn’t too bad. I have an awesome BMW M3 with which I can woo said 18-year-old chicks… plus I like my job… plus I earn some pretty good money doing my job.

So what sucks about being 27? Well, nothing really… except that for every birthday, Georgia requires me to pay my Ad Valorem tax (”ad valorem” is Latin for “according to value”). Yes, Georgia charges its citizen every year for owning their cars. This year, Georgia charged me $125 for owning the Corolla, plus $165 for owning the M3. That comes to $290. Plus I’m required to get $25 emissions tests done on my vehicles. So for my birthday, Georgia was nice enough to charge me annually $340 for owning my two cars.

I was planning on spending that money on a Nintendo Wii and some Wii video games… but I guess Georgia thought it would be better for me to celebrate my birthday by paying Ad Valorem taxes on my cars. Next month, maybe I can celebrate the fact that my birthday is NOT in July.