New Accommodations

It's July 24th and I'm spending the night in our new house alone. No one has slept here since the 97 year old previous owner moved out. In some ways it's a little creepy. It's a stone rancher, 93 feet from one end to another, give or take, on three acres of ground. There's no street lamps like at my old house and you can actually see stars. There's also coyotes and fox and all that stuff. Should be interesting.

I like this house, but to be honest, I'd rather not be moving with my mom. Her and her boyfriend bought the place, and since I can't afford my own place...here I am. Yay.

In other news...a month or so ago, Planechase 2012 came out. A variation of Magic that involves Planar cards that represent the different worlds of Magic's Multiverse. Each plane has a different effect on the game, and some planes are more dangerous than your opponent. It's a fun way to play, especially when slightly inebriated.

More recently, Magic 2013 has hit stores, so if you've never played and want to try, now is the perfect time. M13 is what is known as a core set. It pulls cards from all of Magic's history and presents them in an easy to understand format. So if you play a card with a special keyword, like Trample, the card will tell you what it means. M13 is also a good way to bolster an existing collection with solid, usable cards like Unsummon and Rancor.

Until next time.

Nicol Bolas is waiting for you.

Mach Speed!

I'm punching this out on my iPod when I should be sleeping. I've got a 5AM shift tomorrow, bleck, but I'll be home in time for fireworks.

Anywho, I've got several things to talk about, so as long as I can find time, I hope to get a few posts up in relatively quick succession.

First on my list is my replacement car. As I mentioned here before, my Grand Prix got totaled. After searching the local Craigslist for a few weeks I came across a 2002 Ford Focus.

It's a ZTS, which is one engine option down from the SVT (Special Vehicle Team) I believe. It only has about 130 horsepower, but the 5 speed manual transmission makes it fun. What really makes it special though is that it is a Mach Audio Edition.

From what I've seen online only 6000 of these cars were made, most painted Mandarin Copper but some, like mine, done in CD Silver. The irony here though is that the original Mach head units had a habit of dying. They also had a specific wiring harness, so an aftermarket head unit wouldn't be compatible. Therefore, my car no longer retains any of the Mach Audio equipment, just the Mach badges on the doors.

Anywho, the previous owner is a detailer by profession, so the car is slightly lowered, the muffler has been replaced with a straight pipe, and it has professionally tinted windows. It was also kept very clean inside and out. It had 127k miles on it when I got it. I knew when I first saw it that it was a good deal. Compared to everything else on Craigslist in my price range this car was gold bullion.

On top of all that, I'm averaging about 29 miles per gallon, as opposed to my Grand Prix's 20mpg average. Win! =D

My next few posts I'm looking to talk about Magic Planechase 2012, SCA stuff, and life in general.

And So It Goes

My list of ex-girlfriends got a permanent implant this past week. As I mentioned before, me and my girl were on a break, so she could focus on graduation and life for a bit. When she asked for a break I said it was ok, not great, and as long as she didn't date this one other guy, we'd be peachy. Otherwise, I'd cut all ties with her.

This, Other Guy, had been following my girlfriend around the entire semester. He'd asked her about dating several times and to my knowledge always got turned down. When questioned, my now ex-girlfriend always denied feelings for him, said it would most likely never happen. I believed her, despite the plethora of rumors that reached even from 300 miles away.

Then this past week we were talking, I had taken off of work to come see her graduation and celebrate her 22nd bday but since we were on a break, I wasn't sure if she still wanted me to. She expressed concern about tension between me and the Other Guy, though she never gave a definite yes or no. Since I am currently without my own car, I decided to stay home and look for one, and told her maybe I'd come visit this next weekend for a SCA event.

The next day a mutual friend of ours started freaking out and asking if I was going to cut ties with her too. Didn't take much to figure out why she asking, but it took another day to get word directly from my Ex. And via text none-the-less. She confirmed that she was indeed dating the Other Guy: "...I did a bit of thinking a decided that I may want to give [Other Guy] a chance. Not a long 1but 1 none the less"

I asked her why bother if she already knew it would be short, she said "just to see." this next part will be easier as a list

Me:" You know it's going to cost you, right?"
Her:" I know. I know you'll hate me" (apparently that's not a high cost since it didn't stop her)
Me:" As long as you know that" (I wouldn't say hate, but I didn't feel like correcting her)
Her: "I do know that. I don't like it but I know that...."
Me: "Well you've made your choice and shown your colors. Goodbye."
Her: "....goodbye"

I haven't talked to her since. Part of me does miss her, but I told her what would happen and I'm sticking to it. She me and the Other Guy on for months with this little game, I always gave her the benefit of the doubt even when reputable sources provided a lot of doubt.

And all of this kinda comes as a slap in the face, I know long distance relationships are hard, but we knew that going in. What's she's done is like saying "You're not worth the effort, but this guy is closer so I'll take him"

I've of course gotten the usual "you can do better than that" stuff from my friends, even mutual friends. I'm not sure what better is exactly, but I guess I might find out someday. I heard from friends that she still wanted me as a friend, but after breaking my trust, that simply cannot be an option. Even if she and the Other Guy break up, as many suspect they will shortly, I don't think I could ever take her back, could ever trust her again, and I'm pretty sure no one would approve of us being together. So while my sentimental side wants to check on her, see how she's doing etc, my logical side says to leave it be, pretend she's dead. It'll be easier that way.

That's my news for the week, hope yours has been better.

Life Keeps Grinding Away

It's been a while since I posted.  I suppose a good bit has happened since last time but I won't remember it all now.

Something in my life needs to change, hopefully it's my state of employment. I can't live at home forever and still being dependent on my parents for everything from clothing to cell phones to car insurance gnaws at me and my sense of self. I was out shopping with my mom now and I know that on my own I would never spend this much on clothing, at least not right now. Yet it's one of those things I should save my money for.

Last week I totaled my Grand Prix. Pulling out from a stop sign making a left, I saw a blinking light on the oncoming Toyota Highlander. I learned as I was pulling out that he was in fact, not turning.  He slammed into me at about 40mph and now my Grand Prix sits in ruins in my dad's driveway.  I now have the lovely task of trying to track down a suitable replacement for it.  I've been checking Craigslist a lot, but most of the cars there are overpriced pieces of junk or otherwise not worth it.  I really like the Subaru Impreza but there's two problems with them. 1) Some moron has modified the f$%# out of it trying to make it a race car and/or 2) Imprezas before the 2006 model get worse gas mileage than my Pontiac did, and I was already spending $300 a month on gas. So getting something worse on gas is not high on my agenda.  That leads me to look at Hondas or Toyotas and such, but I run into much of the same #1 problem as the Imprezas.  E.g. "I swapped the motor with an acura but now it doesn't run, gimme $5,000" Or the car has something like eight billion miles on it.  Either way, the used car market does not have much to offer to one of my financial status.

To top things off, my girlfriend and I have decided to take a break.  Distance and the stress of life has lead her to need some time to herself. I certainly can't fault her for this, you can't force someone to stay with you if they aren't happy with the situation.  I still plan on visiting her from time to time, and seeing her at SCA events of course.

Well, until next time, smooth sailing my friends.

Wage Slave Dance

I'm sitting at a Home Depot store meeting. It's 6:20AM on a Sunday. It's only been nine hours since my last shift ended yesterday and I'm running on five hours' sleep.

One of our managers is droning on about departments making "plan," or their expected sales. Overall, it's stuff I personally don't care about.

I've decided that Home Depot feeds off the crushed hopes and dreams of its employees. Most of the people here aren't here by choice, I know of at least two in particular that graduated from college with cool degrees, ended up here, and got stuck. I'm desperate not to end up like that. There are also plenty of people here who should be, and some who were, retired. For the most part it's a dead-end-job kind of place but the management tries so hard to care and be enthusiastic about it.

When I started here I felt pretty good about the job, but lately I'm just full of loathing and spite for the place. Maybe it's the drive, maybe it's cause I'd rather be running an SEM, I don't know.

Now we're watching a video on FIRST, Home Depot's customer service concept. I just watched this in my initial training in August. No one here cares, they're watching the video but there's no interest in their eyes. The little scenes are poorly scripted and staged and don't reflect reality very well.

LET'S ALL DO THE WAGE-SLAVE DANCE!

Unplanned Vacation

So last weekend a buddy of mine and I rode out to my alma mater to see our girlfriends. Mine had no idea I was coming till I got there. Work had made the mistake of giving me off on Friday and Sunday, so I made sure I came down with a wretched stomach bug for Saturday. Later on Saturday they called me back and cut 17 hours from my schedule, meaning no work again until this coming Saturday. This being the case I decided to stay in California, PA until Friday and take Amtrak's The Pennsylvanian from Pittsburgh to Paoli station. It takes longer than driving, but at $49.00 one-way I can't complain.

This only made my girl all the happier and I got to attend the fencing practice on Thursday that I helped start. I also got to play lots of Magic with my friends, including Shane over at Argyle State of Mind. I made several new card acquisitions as well such as Kiega, the Tide Star, Hivestone, Crosis, the Purger, Dromar the Banisher, Chandra Ablaze & Sorin Markov.  Keiga, Crosis & Dromar work wonders in my Scion of the Ur-Dragon Commander deck, and I'm thinking Hivestone plus Karona, False God will make an awesome Commander combo as well.

Now anyone who knows me knows that trains are one of the many things I geek out over. Everything from trackside scenery to our own locomotive's horn just make me feel more like a kid than I already am. Rolling through the town of Altoona really had me sitting up and looking every which way. I don't think I've ever seen so many locomotives in one place. They even have a bunch of old Pennsy cars and a burgundy GG1 sitting near the station. I believe I mentioned GG1s in an earlier post after New Years. The Harrisburg station even had a green GG1 and Pennsy bobber caboose.

GG1 at Harrisburg

The Pennsylvanian

Philly Auto Show 2012

So on Saturday I went to the Philly Autos Show. (I might get pics up later) Saw a lot of neat cars, as per usual, but saw a lot of practical cars. At the same I'm surprised at the number of gas guzzling SUVs still on the market.

Some of the cars I Checked out/sat in were the Subaru Impreza STI, Scion IQ (for gits and shiggles), the Ford Fiesta & Focus, aaaand....some other stuff. I sat in a Jaguar, it was nice. So is the Tanq & Tonic I'm working on.

(2 days later) Now where was I? Right, cars. The Subarus were nice, and didn't seem badly priced. An Impreza STI started in the mid 20,000s, and with auto loan rates what they, such a price doesn't seem so impossible for an underemployed graduate such as myself (but one must remember fuel, parts, & insurance in costs as well). Subaru also had their new rear-wheel drive BRZ on display. Certainly wouldn't mind test driving one of those someday.

I looked at some of the new VWs, like the redesigned Beetle, but didn't spend too much time on them. I eventually worked my way over to the Scion display. Of all the Scions, I hate the tC the least, but at 110hp I don't think I'd ever get one. A test drive isn't out of the question. They had a new car there, the iQ, which is strictly a compact people-mover. It's about the size of a SmartForTwo, maybe even smaller, at boasts it is the world's smallest 4 seater. Me and some awesome guys who happened to be there decided to test this and we did indeed get four humans in that car. Granted we were all under 6ft tall and agreed that no one would want to spend long periods of time in the vehicle.

I mosied through the Chevrolet area, checked out the Sonic, looked over the Camaros and surprised that the two Corvettes present had no special display. There was a brand new ZR-1 sitting on the floor covered in smudgey fingerprints (cause people just have to touch, right?). You couldn't get in the ZR-1, but it still got plenty of abuse.

Down at the Ford exhibit I sat in both the new Fiesta and Focus. I'm not a big guy, and the Fiesta was claustaphobic. So i certainly wouldn't buy one, even though Top Gear stormed the beaches of Normandy with one. The Focus was actually pretty nice, but I'd have to drive one and see how much pep it has. Cars should be as fun to drive as they are functional.

After Ford I proceeded to check out Audi, Porsche, Cadillac, Dodge, Jeep, Fiat & Mini. Audi's V10 R8 and Porsche's Cayman R triggered appropriate levels of drool. Cadillac was, well, Cadillac. Dodge is releasing a new Dart, though the letters on the trunk look like Dort.

Jeep's new Wranglers are nice yet simultaneously all wrong. I used to drive a '97 TJ, and something about the the Wranglers is wrong, from body style to gear setting.

Fiat has finally released an American 500 Abarth, which is nice to sit in, and might be worth looking at. At one point I was comparing hp/weight ratios between Fiats & Minis, but I forget what came out on top. On that note, I also sat in a new Mini S for the first time since I first saw them at the Philly Auto Show several years ago. I would totally get one for the right price.

One of the big sights at the Philly show comes not from any one maker, but a local dealership, F.C. Kerbeck. First, a disclaimer: I would NEVER buy a car from them. From annoying commercials screaming about Cadillacs to horror stories on the net, these guys are shady. Second: They're the only people at the show to bring Maserati, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, and Lamborghini.

Yes, Lamborghini. And this year they had both the brand new Aventador and a 25th Aniversary Countach. I was actually more surprised by, and spent more time looking at, the Countach. The Countach was Lambo's first super-wedge car with "scissor" doors. It succeeded the Miura (a drop dead gorgeous vehicle by the way), and was in turn succeeded by the Diablo. The Aventador is the first true re-design of Lambo's standard V12 engine since the Countach.

You could easily spend all day at the show if you wanted to sit in every car and talk to reps from each vendor, but being a broke college grad, new cars are just for looking at right now.